Finally finished Sabriel, it was a bit of a struggle. Maybe my expectations were too high, but I'm kind of disappointed. 
 The book has everything it needs to be an awesome book: 
 1.	A mysterious kingdom in decay but full of magic 
 2.	Original world-building and magic 
 3.	Strong female main character 
 4.	A tiny bit of romance 
 5.	A lot of action and adventure 
 So why didn't I love this book and just felt it was OK? 
 I think the feeling started really early in my reading. First of all, the magic was really complicated; even now I'm kind of confused about the difference between free-magic and charter magic. I also still don't understand what the wallmakers were and why they built the wall at all. 
 Second, the info dumping was really slow, so at the beginning I didn't understand what the heck was going on and after a few chapters, when things started to be explained, I had to skim back to re-read fragments. 
 There is a lot of action in this book, a LOT. Everything happens so fast that it doesn't leave room to get to know the characters. I liked Sabriel, Mogget and Touchstone a lot, but after finishing the book I feel I don't really know them. We are told so little about their past, their feelings, their opinions that there's no connection whatsoever between themselves and between the reader and them. The romance is really cute, tiny caresses and glances, but the start of it felt a bit sudden and forced, mostly because there was so much going on that I don't see exactly WHEN they fell in love. 
 I'll take a break before reading the sequels, maybe they'll explain a little more.