Today, Olivia from YA-Mag chatted with legendary high fantasy master Garth Nix about the latest ABHORSEN novel, CLARIEL Check it out!
Clariel is the daughter of the one of the most notable families in the Old Kingdom, with blood relations to the Abhorsen and, most importantly, to the King. When her family moves to the city of Belisaere, there are rumors that her mother is next in line for the throne. However, Clariel wants no part of it—a natural hunter, all she ever thinks about is escaping the city’s confining walls and journeying back to the quiet, green world of the Great Forest.
But many forces conspire against Clariel’s dream. A dangerous Free Magic creature is loose in the city, her parents want to marry her off to a killer, and there is a plot brewing against the old and withdrawn King Orrikan. When Clariel is drawn into the efforts to find and capture the creature, she discovers hidden sorcery within herself, yet it is magic that carries great dangers. Can she rise above the temptation of power, escape the unwanted marriage, and save the King?
Olivia with YA-Mag: Garth, welcome to the Young Adult Magazine! I’m excited to share more about your latest novel, CLARIEL–the long awaited prequel to your Old Kingdom trilogy!
YA: So let’s talk about Clariel herself. How did you two first meet? What makes her the perfect character to tell this story vs. any other character?
Garth Nix: I first met the character much later in her life, in fact when she is about six hundred years old. This was when I was writing LIRAEL, which begins with the ancient necromancer Chlorr of the Mask at a strange hill near the Red Lake in the Old Kingdom, a place she has been drawn to in search of power. Chlorr is one of the secondary antagonists in LIRAEL and ABHORSEN, but at the time I made a note in my manuscript book: “How do you get to become an ancient evil necromancer? What is Chlorr’s story?” CLARIEL is the result, it is the origin story of Chlorr of the Mask, and so could not be about anyone else!
YA: What sets Clariel’s story apart from other high fantasy YA titles, like GRACELING by Kristin Cashore or Leigh Bardugo’s THE GRISHA series?
GN: High Fantasy as a category can cover a very wide range of different stories. As always, much of what makes a book different is in the small details that build up the overall experience. I think in CLARIEL readers will find many such small differences and inventions that make the book unique, ranging from the world itself, the magic, the situations and the characters.
YA: What influences helped spark this story?
GN: It’s always hard to identify any particular influences, because there are so many and sometimes they influence many different works. For the world of the Old Kingdom in general, I know that the idea of the named bells both the Abhorsens and evil necromancers use was sparked by reading THE NINE TAILORS by Dorothy Sayers, a murder mystery where the bells in a church tower play a significant part, and reading this book I first became aware that bells are often given names. I think some of the ‘look and feel’ of the city of Belisaere, where most of CLARIEL is set comes in part from the two Richard Lester films THE THREE MUSKETEERS and THE FOUR MUSKETEERS, but also from a non-fiction book called THE MEDIEVAL CITY, and from a long-ago children’s magazine called ‘Look and Learn” which had a number of articles on Constantinople. I do listen to music while I write sometimes (not always) and some of my high energy action sequences may well have been powered along by Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, AC/DC and The Dandy Warhols.
YA: When you were a teen, what was your favorite book (YA or otherwise)? Now, as an author for teens, what is your favorite contemporary YA?
GN: I could never choose just one book, I loved (and love) so many. If forced at gunpoint to choose just one, I would take THE LORD OF THE RINGS, which influenced me enormously when I was a teenager. It may not be obvious, because I don’t write epic fantasy with elves and dwarves and a dark lord and so forth, but in retrospect I’ve realized that I replicate many of Tolkien’s themes in my own work, particularly the assumption of responsibility and the cost of stepping up to do the right thing. In contemporary YA, I am way behind in my reading, though I do try to keep up with the work of my friends in the field and the significant books. The best YA book(s) I have read recently are THE COLDEST GIRL IN COLDTOWN by Holly Black and THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater. But there are many more by my bedside table I am looking forward to reading when I get the chance.
YA: While many of the other OLD KINGDOM books are titled after their protagonist, how did you first decide to title them in that way?
GN: I usually decide on the title right at the very beginning of the process and rarely depart from it. SABRIEL was never called anything else, and I guess it set the precedent for the others. I liked the name, which I spent a lot of time making up, and having done so it just seemed perfect for the title as well, since it is emphatically her story. I do like subtitles though, which is why LIRAEL has the subtitle “Daughter of the Clayr” and CLARIEL has “The Lost Abhorsen”.
YA: This is the prequel for your OLD KINGDOM (or ABHORSEN for American fans) series. Why is this a good place for new fans to jump in to the series?
GN: I think a new reader could start either with SABRIEL or CLARIEL, or even LIRAEL. But not ABHORSEN, because it really is the second half of LIRAEL. In fact I wrote both of them as one book and they were separated because of the length, in the time-honored tradition established when THE LORD OF THE RINGS was split into three volumes and the magic of the fantasy trilogy was born by accident. Though CLARIEL is a prequel, because it takes place so long before the events of SABRIEL, the book can be read entirely separately. But for those readers familiar with the original trilogy, it will probably have greater depth and resonance, giving a different look into the world of the Old Kingdom.
YA: What has it been like for you, returning to this world after almost a decade? What has been the most fun, and what has been the most challenging?
GN: I’ve really enjoyed venturing back into the Old Kingdom. In general, I try to write my books as if the events in them really happened, somewhere, sometime. Going back to this world made that easier in some ways, because I was so familiar with much of the background I wasn’t so much making stuff up as rediscovering it. This was also a challenge, because with so much already established, I had to make sure the new story would fit in. I had to re-read my earlier books, which I hadn’t done for years. I don’t like re-reading my own work that much, but it was fascinating to see how much I’d forgotten, and to find things I’d set up without really being aware I was doing so at the time. The subconscious writing mind is a wonderful thing.
YA: If you could see CLARIEL in another format, what would be the best: live-action film, animated film, or graphic novel? If a film, who would you cast in the main roles?
GN: I think any of these would be potentially great. It’s all in the execution, as with so many things. I’d rather have no film than a bad one. In general, with the Old Kingdom books, I would love to see them as really well-made live-action films, and I think they would benefit from casting relatively unknown actors in the main parts. I think the roles of Clariel, Sabriel and Lirael in particular would all offer tremendous opportunities for young actresses to become stars, rather than bringing the baggage of existing stardom to any potential film.
YA: What’s up next for you in YA land? Any pet projects you can tease us about?
GN: I have a story collection coming out in May 2015, called TO HOLD THE BRIDGE, which features a novella set in the Old Kingdom around about the same time-frame as CLARIEL. The collection has a lot of other stories, many of them YA. I also have a “Young Adult/Regency Romance with Magic” novel called NEWT’S EMERALD which will be out in October 2015 (it is currently available as an ebook only for a limited time). And there will be another Old Kingdom book in 2016, with a secret title, that picks up with Lirael and Nicholas Sayre after the events of ABHORSEN and “The Creature in the Case” novella.
YA: All right, last one! If you could spend one day with Clariel, what would you do together? What would advice would you give to Clariel about her past or future?
GN: Depending on when that day occurred, I would be very frightened to spend a day with Clariel! If it was fairly early on, I would try to help her leave the city immediately and follow her dream to live in the Great Forest. If it was later, I would run in the other direction and selfishly try to save myself.
YA: Thank you very much, Garth! And again, from YA Mag, congratulations on CLARIEL!
GN: Thank you!
Readers, be sure to check out Garth Nix at his website GarthNix.com. Or follow him on Twitter @garthnix.
CLARIEL, published by HarperCollins, is available October 14th at your favorite retailers and local independent bookstores, and on Amazon.com!
Olivia Hennis is a transplanted New England girl dropped by a tornado into the magical Land of Jersey. For more info, follow her on Twitter.