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A review by captainjemima
Across The Wall: A Tale Of The Abhorsen And Other Stories by Garth Nix
3.0
This book of short stories was a real insight into Garth Nix's literary brain. Each story is prefaced with a couple of pages where he talks about his motivations behind the text. There is also an interesting Q&A section at the end of the book to answer his fans' FAQs.
I especially enjoyed 'Down To The Scum Quarter', which is a parody on "Choose your own adventure" books, where each numbered paragraph tells you which number to follow next. Nix has a laugh at the fantasy genre which is refreshing and an insight into his sense of humour.
The main story of 'Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case' is best read soon after finishing the 'Sabriel', 'Lirael' and 'Abhorsen' trilogy. In fact, DON'T read the story unless you've read the trilogy, or you won't know what's going on. In my case, I read the short story approximately ten months after finishing 'Abhorsen'. Unfortunately I was lost as to the references to the end of the story, which I couldn't quite remember and had to guess at.
I especially enjoyed 'Down To The Scum Quarter', which is a parody on "Choose your own adventure" books, where each numbered paragraph tells you which number to follow next. Nix has a laugh at the fantasy genre which is refreshing and an insight into his sense of humour.
The main story of 'Nicholas Sayre and the Creature in the Case' is best read soon after finishing the 'Sabriel', 'Lirael' and 'Abhorsen' trilogy. In fact, DON'T read the story unless you've read the trilogy, or you won't know what's going on. In my case, I read the short story approximately ten months after finishing 'Abhorsen'. Unfortunately I was lost as to the references to the end of the story, which I couldn't quite remember and had to guess at.