His Dark Materials

what an example of hype overshadowing the actual worth of the text! why is this series so popular??? baffling. perhaps it managed to capture the imaginations of those who do not typically read fantasy and mistakenly think this is some sort of pinnacle?

as to be expected from a tome this size, it is unavoidable that a few rare scenes can be treasured, like the armored polar bear or the hijacking of the houseboat or the notion of souls expressed in the living world, but this tale is patchy, disorganized...ugh. the only reason i can think of that may account of its unaccountable rise is the unoriginal tackling of religion. interesting but that also could be done better.

blah!

Posted at my blog:

There were a number of classic series that came out during my adolescence, and I really wish His Dark Materials had gotten more popular. I realize that all the religious changes in the third book got some people a bit huffy, but I really think that Pullman came up with some quality outside of the box worlds in this trilogy. If you’ve only see the “Golden Compass” movie, then honestly you don’t know what you’re missing. The trilogy is so different than the first book or movie and you should read them!


Title: His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass is the first book)
Author: Philip Pullman
Pages: ~400 each (paperback)
Setting: The trilogy begins in an alternate UK, however our world is actually just a stone’s throw away if you can step between realities! Several different and very interesting realities/worlds are visited in this trilogy, some rather conventional and some not at all!
Premise: Lyra is the main character and she has a furry friend named Pan who is a reflection/part of her soul and changes shapes between lots of different animals. The first book is a typical plot about a bad/mysterious group kidnapping children and Lyra going to save them, but later in the trilogy things get much more philosophical. There is actually a whole lot more going on across all the parallel universes and Lyra and some other friends she meets along the way need to figure it out before Everything is destroyed.

Strengths:

A very interesting take on religion in the multiple worlds
Female main character
Fuzzy animals companions :D
The trilogy has a completely different plot than you think after the first book (and movie)
Very awesome supporting characters and very moving death scenes (not telling who though!)
Pretty easy read, though it does get emotional occasionally (you might cry in an airport if you aren’t careful >.>)
Some really interesting worlds that Pullman came up with!

Weaknesses:

Because of the reinterpretation of religions, this might not be a good book for strongly religious people, specifically Christians might not appreciate how God is portrayed
The last book of the trilogy is not nearly as child-friendly as the first
The second and third books have a very different feel from the first book/movie, which might be a good or a bad thing depending on your perspective
If you cry at books, these will probably make you cry
I might just be weird, but I’m easily spooked by books/television shows and there are some spooky parts in this book involving dead people

Summary: Very good trilogy with a much more complicated and intricate plot than what the first book suggests. I highly recommend these books if you aren’t going to be insulted by some interesting reinterpretations of religion, specifically Christianity. The worlds that Pullman came up with and connected together are fantastically done in my opinion. These books are easy to read and easy to love I think and should totally be on a summer reading list!

More reviews at http://www.onstarshipsanddragonwings.com/ ( )

Back in February I started an* (friendly!) internet fight with some friends about this series saying how much I really disliked it. My friends' impassioned defense of this series inspired me to reread it and I'm very glad I did. I still have issues but a girl can have issues with a book and still enjoy it, right?

*side note, what is the rule for a/an when there is a parenthesis between the article and it's partner? Should I have stuck with an or gone with a?

For this book ramble I'm going to assume yall have read these books because I'm going to be talking about all three, what I liked, what I loved, and what I didn't like.

To begin with, these audiobooks are fantastic. They are full cast and Philip Pullman himself is the voice of the narrator. I tend to be wary of authors who are also narrators of their book but Philip Pullman is really good. He's got a great voice. Sean Barrett is both Lord Azreal and Iorek Byrnison and he is also phenomenal (Ooh! Wikipedia tells me that Sean Barrett was also a goblin in Labyrinth! Score!). Really the whole cast was perfect but those two stood out. The overall audiobook has some sound effects/voice effects but they're subtle and don't take you out of the story. I highly recommend going for the audiobook if you've got the time/inclination!

When I started the internet fight I started it by complaining about the theology of His Dark Materials. I don't care what the theology is, I hate when a book so obviously pushes a message. I remembered the plot as going severely downhill in the second and third books culminating in, as my friend Duckandpenguin said, "It’s as if Pullman kind of gave up on his manuscript and passed it on to Richard Dawkins and said 'here, see what you can do with it, I’ve had it with this story.'" On reread the message didn't bother me as much - maybe it's because I've become so much less of a Catholic and more of an Agnostic (although that is not a discussion for the blog but a point I feel is relevant) - or maybe it's because I had built it up so much in my mind that what actually happened seemed like so much less? I still find the second and especially the third books preachy but it wasn't overwhelming this time. I could let it slide and enjoy the storyline.

When I first read The Golden Compass I remember being so excited about what it was. I've always been a fantasy fan but I was also always acutely aware that there was girly fantasy (basically anything with a girl as a main character) and then there was fantasy that boys could like too. The Golden Compass seemed to me to be a fantasy book with a girl main character that wasn't a book just for girls. I found the adventure and the armored bears and the war and the daemons thrilling and was especially excited that it was a GIRL who was allowed to be the action hero and who got to go out and kick butt and take names and really just be as awesome as she can be. Then the Subtle Knife came along. Rereading these books all the feelings that I felt when reading them the first time came flooding back and I found myself getting more and more frustrated as the second book wore on. The book opens with Will (a more insufferable twat I've rarely met). When Lyra meets Will she is told pretty explicitly by the alethiometer that she needs to abandon her quest and her desires and help Will. Every time Lyra indulges in trying to research the Dust or talk to Mary or pause in a museum everything goes wrong and she ends up completely contrite that she dared to try and have a will of her own. One of the problems with reviewing from an audiobook is that I can't pull up quotes as easily as I could from a print book but there is a part where Lyra pledges to Will that she's abandoning everything to go with him to help find his father. She even goes so far as to deny herself the use of the alethiometer unless Will asks her to ask it a question. I don't think I can explain how devastated I was by this in college. I had discovered these books after the first two were out but before the third was out and I had hung so much hope on Lyra - she was going to be the one, you know? She was going to make it acceptable for boys to read fiction about girls without getting teased (Yes, I know, hegemonic systematic problems will not be brought down by one book but I'm a bit of a Polly Anna)! I had planned on going home and sharing these books with my best guy friend who I had shared the Redwall books with as a child. After he had embraced Lyra I was gong to give him Dealing with Dragons and The Princess and Curdie and all those other great adventurous girls I had loved that I knew he would too if only he'd give them a chance! And then reading the Subtle Knife I felt like that was all taken away from me (again, please don't mock. The ideals of a college feminist, ya know? Don't we all think, at one point or another, that every choice is world changing?). Lyra was being pushed into giving up herself because there's this annoying boy around who takes over and becomes the focal point. They share the spotlight in the third book but Lyra is still annoyingly willing to acquiesce to all of Will's choices and Will continues to be the most demanding obnoxious boy ever.

Can I talk for a minute about my dislike of Will? He's obsessed with who's stronger. When at a standoff he tends to say something like, "Well I'm stronger than you angels/Gallivespian/whatnot so you have to do whatever I say. Plus I have the knife so nyah!" He's the hero of the thing so what he's trying to force everyone else to do is, in fact, the "right" thing but DAMN, boy! Stop and listen to other people's points of view for once! And he has no inner monologue! At the end when they're meeting with the angel and he asks the angel what his future holds and then he says (again - reviewing without text in front of me so this is a paraphrase), "no, don't tell me. I want to make these choices myself. If I do what you say I will I'll always wonder if I did it because you told me to or if it was my choice. If I choose something else I'll always wonder if I messed up and am doing something wrong." Dude, just stop after "I want to make those choices myself." We all understand the rest! And he does that for ALL OF HIS CHOICES! He gives a quick one sentence explanation of why and then he elaborates for a year about that explanation. HUSH UP ALREADY! And then this is the guy that MY Lyra falls in love with? Pfft.

So overall I give the first book five stars the second book two and the third three and a half. I'm glad I read them, I'm glad I reread them, but oof. Issues.

Edit: My awesome internet-friend Parliament Books just directed me to her review here that I had somehow missed that is awesome and y'all should read as well. She goes more into the problematic racial/sexual/etc issues than I did and it is lovely.

Silly side note to end this on - I've become obsessed with Adele recently and her song Turning Tables? Probably because I became obsessed while also listening to this audiobook but I hear "Close enough to start a war/All that I have is on the floor/God only knows what we're fighting for/All that I say, you always say more/I can't keep up with your turning tables/Under Iofur Raknison." Somehow I don't think that Adele was singing about the ex panserbjørn king. I'm going to have to look up the real lyrics one of these days.

http://librarianpirate.blogspot.com/2011/05/his-dark-materials-by-phillip-pullman.html ( )

I read this as a child and was completely caught up by the magic of it. I have fond memories of playing elaborately constructed games set in Pullman's universe with my friends--we had such fun inventing daemons for ourselves! Any book that inspires excellent childhood games is automatically excellent. I've tried to reread it as a grownup and cannot bear: the underlying antireligious didactics are at constant danger of destroying aforementioned fond memories. Even when I sort of agree with Pullman in theory I just can't stand all of the real-world drama and controversy; I just want fierce, fantastic Lyra and dear Will with their marvelous adventures immaculate forever in my memory. ( )

I enjoyed the first and second books quite a bit. Interesting concept, interesting and dynamic characters, adventure, etc. The third book lost me, and is what caused the trilogy as a whole to earn only a 3-star rating from me. It just seemed to drag on for so... long... *sigh*

***Spoilerish material ahead***

The premise was interesting enough. Simply put, Lord Asriel wants to take down the church and God in order to promote knowledge (Dust), which has been demonized as heresy.

It's the execution of this that didn't really do it for me. Asriel creates this army to go to war against the Authority (God) in order to win, yet God never even comes into battle and just drifts off into oblivion.

Eve is supposed to be reincarnated in Lyra (perhaps not really reincarnated, but Lyra is definitely supposed to act the role of Eve and be tempted), and Mary is supposedly to act as the serpent, yet Lyra isn't tempted by Mary, she's tempted by and falls for Will.

Some aspects of the story as a whole didn't add up for me, which disappoints me because I had high hopes for this trilogy becoming a favorite. :( ( )