In a world full of necromancers, the Abhorsen reverses their work. When he gets trapped in Death by the necromancer Kerrigor, he sends a package to his daughter Sabriel, who resides across the Wall, a barrier separating the magical Old Kingdom from Ancelstierre.

When Sabriel receives the Abhorsen’s necromancy bells and ensorcelled sword, she sets out across the Wall, unwillingly assuming the title of Abhorsen. At first determined to find her father, she fights her way through Dead Hands and Mordicants, all the way to the Abhorsen’s House. There she finds Mogget, a Free Magic elemental in the shape of a cat. Mogget, who served the Abhorsens for thousands of years, sheds some light on the strange goings-on of the raised Dead, and helps her escape the Mordicant literally waiting at the gates.

Flying a Paperwing aircraft, Sabriel and Mogget set off to find the prior Abhorsen’s body, to locate him in death. Along the way they discover the plans of the necromancer Kerrigor. In his quest for immortality, spanning over 200 years, he has been trying to destroy the Charter Stones, the monoliths regulating magic, Life, and Death. If he could destroy them, then the Charter would cease to exist, and everything would be controllable by Free Magic.

Sabriel is an interesting and different book. While reading it, I had a hard time putting it down. I’m a fantasy maniac, as some of you may know by now, and Sabriel is an exceptional work of fantasy by an innovative author.

Endymion Spring isn’t your average mystery.

In the year of 1453, Gutenberg and his apprentice Endymion Spring are setting the type for the book they will be mass-printing. Gutenberg’s financier, Johann Fust, shows up, bringing with him a locked chest.

In present day Oxford, Blake Winters finds a blank book in a library. Marked “Endymion Spring,” the ancient book eventually shows him, and only him, a prophecy.

The story moves back and forth between 1453 and the present, slowly revealing everything. In the present, Blake searches for the Eternal Codex, a book containing all of history and future, the blank book pointing him toward it. Back in 1453, Endymion Spring hides the Codex to keep it out of the hands of Johann Fust, the investor who obtained the book through nefarious means, so as to have all of time’s knowledge.

Matthew Skelton, an expert on books and printing, has done an excellent job of merging fiction and history in Endymion Spring. It’s worth reading, especially if your addicted to books.