Media: Novel series Approx length: 5 books total: A standalone first book, with two sequels forming a trilogy, and two other sequels, written much later, as a connected pair (rec focuses on the first three, as the other two are separate/have a lot of later setting drift). + a couple of short stories
Where to find it: Bookstores/libraries! Your libby/library app will probably have them
What is it, in summary?: A series of fantasy novels set at the boundaries between two colliding universes, Ancelstierre, resembling mostly-mundane 1910s England, and the Old Kingdom, a magical version of Scotland hundreds of years earlier. The first book follows Sabriel, a young woman raised in an ordinary girls' boarding school, who must take up her father's role suppressing the malicious spirits of the dead and return to the Old Kingdom to fight the genocidal schemes of a dead sorcerer. The second and third books take place a decade later and follow Lirael, who teaches herself strange and dangerous magic while trying to understand why she never developed the prophetic skills of all her relatives, and eventually embarks on her own quest to suppress the Dead and restore the balance of magic.
What do you love about it?: A really vividly-written and unusual fantasy world with fun and strange details, occupied by two very real and grounded female protagonists. Both Sabriel and Lirael are simultaneously very strange and very realistic people
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?: Worldbuilding about political structures or reconstruction in the Old Kingdom, about the Library where Lirael works. Stories about Sabriel and/or Lirael, including character studies, canon divergence AUs where they meet earlier or have different adventures, or stories about their postcanon lives.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?: Sabriel, the first book, is entirely standalone and a roughly standard-size YA/adult fantasy novel. I would certainly be delighted with fanwork only focusing on Sabriel characters/settings, and it captures the most interesting and unusual details about the world without a need to refer to the later books.
The Old Kingdom - Garth Nix
Media: Novel series
Approx length: 5 books total: A standalone first book, with two sequels forming a trilogy, and two other sequels, written much later, as a connected pair (rec focuses on the first three, as the other two are separate/have a lot of later setting drift). + a couple of short stories
Where to find it: Bookstores/libraries! Your libby/library app will probably have them
What is it, in summary?:
A series of fantasy novels set at the boundaries between two colliding universes, Ancelstierre, resembling mostly-mundane 1910s England, and the Old Kingdom, a magical version of Scotland hundreds of years earlier. The first book follows Sabriel, a young woman raised in an ordinary girls' boarding school, who must take up her father's role suppressing the malicious spirits of the dead and return to the Old Kingdom to fight the genocidal schemes of a dead sorcerer. The second and third books take place a decade later and follow Lirael, who teaches herself strange and dangerous magic while trying to understand why she never developed the prophetic skills of all her relatives, and eventually embarks on her own quest to suppress the Dead and restore the balance of magic.
What do you love about it?:
A really vividly-written and unusual fantasy world with fun and strange details, occupied by two very real and grounded female protagonists. Both Sabriel and Lirael are simultaneously very strange and very realistic people
What sort of things are you likely to request for it?:
Worldbuilding about political structures or reconstruction in the Old Kingdom, about the Library where Lirael works. Stories about Sabriel and/or Lirael, including character studies, canon divergence AUs where they meet earlier or have different adventures, or stories about their postcanon lives.
Are there sections of canon (rather than the whole canon) that can be consumed by themselves to fulfil your requests, or that showcase particular characters and relationships?:
Sabriel, the first book, is entirely standalone and a roughly standard-size YA/adult fantasy novel. I would certainly be delighted with fanwork only focusing on Sabriel characters/settings, and it captures the most interesting and unusual details about the world without a need to refer to the later books.