Abhorsen by Garth Nix

Opening Sentence:Fog rose from the river, great billows of white weaving into the soot and smoke of the city of Corvere, to become the hybrid thing that the more popular newspapers called smog and the Times 'miasmic fog'.
Synopsis:Beneath the earth, a malignant force lies waiting, greedy for freedom from its ancient prison. As the Old Kingdom falls once more into a realm of darkness and terror, the people look desperately to the Abhorsen, the scourge of the Dead, to save them. Yet Abhorsen Sabriel is lost, missing in Ancelstierre.

Only Lirael has any chance of stopping the Destroyer. With her companions Sameth, Mogget and the Disreputable Dog, she travels across the Old Kingdom in a race against time, battling Shadow Hands and dark necromancers to reach Ancelstierre before it is too late. But what hope can one young woman have against a terrible evil with the power to destroy life itself.
Genre:Fantasy
Rating:@@@@@
Pages:374
ISBN:1-8650-8749-1
Year:2003
Format:Paperback
Comments:Abhorsen is the riveting conclusion to the Old Kingdom trilogy. As with the previous books, I really love the contrast between Ancelstierre - the world as we know it - and the Old Kingdom - a world of magic and mystery where the dead come to life and modern technology ceases to operate. In this book, the two worlds come closer together than ever before and both face total annihilation. Both Sameth and Lirael come into their inheritance and we finally discover the true natures of Mogget and the Disreputable Dog. This book, like the others, is a thrilling and engrossing read.