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His Dark Materials (Trilogy)
Lyra soon finds herself at the centre of world shaking events, but unlike so many fantasy books, Philip Pullman has come up with a series of astounding, interlocking adventures, full of wonders, creatures, and worlds that will keep you guessing for the full length of the trilogy. All the main characters in the three books are fully fleshed out, with distinct personalities and motivations. There is a fairly large cast of characters, but the author deftly weaves their stories together, often to great dramatic effect.
This trilogy is marketed as children's literature, but this is a much more intense series than Harry Potter is. Battles are deadly, not glorious; good people that you have come to care about die. Certain unfortunate events unfold with ruthless logic. Organised religion is presented in a very bad light, which will turn off some readers. I wouldn't recommend this series to children under 12, but I enthusiastically recommend His Dark Materials to anyone who enjoys fantasy.
The Golden Compass
Lyra is a resourceful and vivacious young girl who lives at Jordan College -- left there by her rich and powerful Uncle, Lord Asriel. Lyra lives a carefree life doing pretty much as she pleases, but she loves adventure and is continually getting into trouble. Then she overhears a conversation about Dust -- a strange substance mysteriously associated with people. Something about Dust is causing great consternation with the Church and other powerful people. At the same time the gobblers are stealing children. Soon Lyra is propelled into the midst of a great conspiracy that takes her far from the comforting halls of Jordan College, and face to face with terrible danger. Lyra's resourceful optimism makes you want her to succeed, and the world she travels through evokes the wonder of things new, and events unknown.
The action will keep children enthralled, and the imaginative twists and turns will surprise and delight adults and children alike. Various peoples and cultures are met throughout the story, and all find a part to play in the epic battle that builds up over all three books.
The Subtle Knife
The Subtle Knife starts off in our familiar world, and introduces a new character: Will. Will is much more serious than Lyra, but their fates are soon intertwined. Will has lived a much more troubled life looking after his mother after his father's disappearance. Someone badly wants something of his father's, and Will's efforts to protect it quickly lead him from home and entangle him in the events started in the Golden Compass. A great war is brewing and Will is destined to play a key role, along side Lyra, in this conflict. A weapon is discovered that will tilt the balance in this war, and Will's search for his father lands him in the middle of the conflict.
Once again the story pulls you into the believable worlds so artfully drawn by Phillip Pullman. Adventure abounds, betrayal, heroic deeds, and dark conflicts drive the story forward.
The Amber Spyglass
The third book in the series draws the story to a satisfying end. Unlike some series, which seem to never end and leave you hanging at the end of each book in search of another sale, the Amber Spyglass reveals the mysteries alluded to throughout the story, and resolves the final conflict. But not before leading you through another set of breathtaking adventures, unforeseen turns, and an epic battle between good and evil.
I highly recommend this series to anyone over the age of 11 who enjoys excellent fantasy. This is a superior children's series that adults will also enjoy for its well-drawn characters, detailed worlds, and intricate plotting.
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:)
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timothy
jrnl: http://tinyurl.com/c2l8yr / foes: http://tinyurl.com/ckjno5
A quick and careless reading of the books leads people to think Pullman is only attacking organized religion and particularly the Catholic Church. But the Church in his stories is actually a composite of the most authoritarian elements of both Roman Catholicism and Protestantism (notably, Calvin is basically called a terrorist). Plus the Church in the book's principal alternate world also performs the functions of the orthodox scientific establishment in our world: there's no distinction between theologians and scientists, theology is in fact experimental, but theorizing is rigidly subject to the authority of the hierarchy. Theology/science at the Oxford of the alternate world is hampered by political infighting, personality clashes, money grabbing, power trips... sound anything like university departments you've seen?
Pullman's trilogy has been called the anti-Narnia, and it's definitely that. Like William Blake, he rereads Milton to make Satan the good guy (sort of: the Satan figure in the trilogy is attractive but flawed). And the best key to what Pullman's up to is Blake's Marriage of Heaven and Hell. Namely:
Read it with Blake in mind, and it's not just a kiddie book. That said, Pulllman's trilogy is often unsatisfying for the lack of internal consistency and coherence in its imagined world, and there are some (to my mind) howlingly bad insertions, like the obligatory descent to the realm of the dead. He wants to have his myth & his science too, and that doesn't always work.For a real review of at least the last book in the series take a look at this
Extract: "Despite various flaws--too much overt moralizing, the unwarranted flip-flop in the fundamental character of Mrs. Coulter, not enough Serafina Pekkala--His Dark Materials is an overwhelming reading experience, brought to a sublime and touching close by The Amber Spyglass. In another time, this is a book that would have made the Index, and in still another era gotten its author condemned to the stake as a heretic. Even now some concerned parents may judge that Philip Pullman has gone Too Far in his plain-spoken critique of religious orthodoxy. But as Blake said, you never know what is enough until you know what is more than enough. His Dark Materials is a novel of electrifying power and splendor, deserving celebration, as violent as a fairy tale and as shocking as art must be. "
My wife and I read to each other before bed, and this was one of the series we went through a few months ago.
The Golden Compass is a great little book. The world that Pullman creates is intriguing and detailed and self-consistant. It's when, in Subtle Knife, he gets into parallel worlds that the whole framework falls apart. And Amber Spyglass is just awful - it has the dubious honor of being one of three books that we had to throw away. The whole Dark Matter connection is just stupid. You hear me, Pullman? If it's magic, then let it be MAGIC. Don't try to justify magic by tying it to science in a poorly considered manner. Cripes - it's worse than if Tolkien had said the reason the Ring corrupted the wearer was because it was made of unshielded plutonium with a mercury coating.
Honestly, it was just insulting, the turn into absolute stupidity that book 2 took.
Read Golden Compass and make up your own story for the rest of it. You'll be far more satisfied.
GMFTatsujin
There be SPOILERS here, but nothing that I think would really ruin the books....
This is a really strange trilogy of books. It's marketed at kids, but most of the allegory is bound to go over their heads. (It's pretty much an "anti-Narnia" series. With as much of a field day as the overzealous wackos have been having with HP, I'm amazed they haven't latched onto this series yet. It's *extremely* anti-religion.)
There's also the problem that the author obviously wasn't planning ahead. There are plenty of *big* references to the Knife as "God Killer", and it's obviously intended for that purpose, but never used in that way. The third book creates the "Amber Spyglass" mainly so it can be a third "item" to round out the trilogy; it serves no useful purpose whatsoever. And then there's the suddenly-tacked-on intense love interest between Lyra and Will in the last few pages of the book to make their parting have *some* meaning.
Overall, the first book got me interested enough to keep reading, the second book really got me hooked, and the third book was so frustrating that I wanted to throw it at the wall by the end.
The book was apparently called The Golden Compass in the States because Pullman changed the title after submitting the manuscript to his U.S. publishers (Scholastic). See the FAQ on this fan site.
The situation has also been explained in various interviews Pullman has given, available through a Google search.
(The Harry Potter books, however, were indeed changed because American kids are considered too dumb to be able to absorb words from another English-speaking culture, though -- see interview with Arthur Levine (the U.S. editor) and the ``Word Gallery'' for a list of the changes.)