Lirael by Garth Nix

Having finished Sabriel, I realized that it was the first book in the series and started quickly looking for the rest of the books. Library to the rescue. As always.

Lirael picks up a couple decades after the events in Sabriel and mostly follow completely different characters. Lirael is an orphaned daughter of the Clayr, the prophets of the Old Kingdom. It's kind of a neat system actually. Individually, they all have the power of foresight but individually it isn't very useful because it is too vague and fractured. However, they can pool their talent together to get more usable predictions. Like I said, kind of cool.

Poor Lirael is alone among the Clayr in that she does not have the gift which singles her out and makes her feel like an outsider. Much of the first third of the book has to do with her feelings on this and how she distracts herself with magic studies and as a librarian.

The other character that the book follows is Prince Sameth who is Sabriel and Touchstone's son. Sameth seems kind of like a fish out of water, it's assumed that he's going to be the next Abhorsen but he's absolutely terrified of the job. So, he ends up running away, in effect, even though he convinces himself that he's really trying to help his friend.

Eventually, the two find each other.

This is a good sequel that continues to develop the world. I actually really love the thought that Nix put into the magic system and the sort of odd layered history and the new villains are pretty seriously creepy.