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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.
You can purchase The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber SpyGlass from B&N. Want to see your own review here? Just read the book review guidelines, then use Slashdot's handy submission form.
Apparently the assumption is that people in the US are too stupid to know what the 'Philosophers Stone' or the 'Northern Lights' is/are. Drives me crazy.
Kintanon
Check out JoshJitsu.info for Brazilian Ji
I read the series about a year ago, it was quite entertaining. Since, it's been a while, I don't remember much of detail of the book, however, I do remember staying up late try to finish it (for each book it took me within 2 days to finish). Pullman does create a interesting world.
As a religious person, I was slightly disturbed by anti-organize-religion slant on of the book, though I would still recommend it to others. Like Dune, and many other fantasy novels, religion is a major component of the world being weaved by the authors.
The series also raised some metaphysic issues. Pullman created a world where a person is more then just one "being" (like the idea of mind, soul and spirit). In some worlds, the different beings of the same person manifest physically, while in some worlds, like ours, only one being is visible. The idea of a multifaceted personhood is intriguing.
Anyways, it's a enjoyable read. It would be fun if you get some friends to read it at the same time, so you can dialogue with them. Agreeing with the original post, though this book is marked as children book, it was entertaining for a 24 year old. If I had any kids, I don't know if I would let them read it until they are in high school. It's more adult then Tolkien's the Hobbit or Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia.
An interesting article by the author of the trilogy can be found here. I looked for it on the Guardian site, but couldn't find it. Anyhow, in the above, he says of the basic message of _The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe_, that "...it's propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology. But that's par for the course. Death is better than life; boys are better than girls; light-coloured people are better than dark-coloured people; and so on. There is no shortage of such nauseating drivel in Narnia, if you can face it."
I remember hearing him say in an interview that the Trilogy was his response to the Narnia series -- he intended the message to be that life is good, joy is good and a girl can be a hero. Oh, and authoritarian life-hating religion is bad.
I enjoyed the Trilogy myself, as did my wife, but we can't figure out why it was called "His Dark Materials." Just being dense, I'm sure.
-Craig
Corollary to Clarke's Third Law: Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
The first book, published here in America as "The Golden Compass," has to rank as one of the most vividly drawn fantasy worlds in the recent history of the genre, ranking, in my opinion, right up there with Middle Earth. I certainly would not hesitate, and in fact haven't hesitated, to recommend this book to adults. (Dare I say on Slashdot that I'm 35?)
However, the tremendous amount of goodwill the novel builds up is slowly squandered in the next two volumes as the story begins to collapse under the weight of the author's religious and political agenda. The saddest result of this is that Lyra, the protaganist, moves from being an incredibly vivid character to just another pawn in Pullman's increasingly abrasive polemic against organized relegion. Those who have read the book will know just what a shame this is - Lyra is an intelligent, resourceful and moral girl whose sense of wonder in discovering the fantastical world around her is truly infectious.
Though the trilogy manages to move inexorably downhill, it starts from such a lofty height in "The Golden Compass" that it's worth slogging through the final book to get to the end - which will break the heart of even the most hardened, cynical geek.
"Trust in haste. Repent at leisure"
One of the problems in describing Pullmans books is that they're not about anything. I don't have the reference offhand, but he has written at least one place that he wishes a return from all sorts of experimental fiction towards just writing good stories.
However, it is not really true that his books don't have themes. Most of his work is about the process of change and growing up, in particular about the end of adolescence. The protagonists of His Dark Materials are children when the story begins and young adults when it ends - the story, on one level, is about puberty. However, it is the plot that drives his stories forward.
What in my opinion makes his mark as a writer that Slashdot readers should be interested in, is his plot devices - the Alethiometer, the Subtle Knife, and the Amber Spyglass, and above all, Dust, the Dark Material. I see fodder for .signature files, role-playing campaigns, and - yes - two of my computers are named Lyra and Pantalaimon.
But to give a summary of what the books are about - that would be as impossible as to sum up what the Lord of The Rings is about. It's not just about this bad ring that has to be destroyed, and the struggles to destroy it, is it?
His Dark Materials appeals to imagination, first and foremost. It is an immense work, it shows an imagination and a playfulness second to none. The setting of the story is in a parallell universe where (I hope I'm not giving away too much now)
- The Calvinist Church won against Luther - Calvinist authorities in Geneva rule the world.
- Consequently, there are strict rules against science, which is here called experimental theology
- Electricity exists, but there are strict limiations to its applications, so there is electric light and telephones, but no radio
- And there is no USA - North America conists of independent countries.
- People wear their souls outside their bodies. They're called daemons.
And, oh yes, magic exists. Lyra, the protagonist, visits our world, and other parallell worlds. OK, there is a quest, which I suppose is what makes it fantasy. And there are incredible plot twists.Just trust me. Give it a try. I'll take that chance that there are slashdot readers who don't like it, because I think that most of you will. These are not children's books - as a 35 years old psychologists I think I should have noticed if they were.
BTW, his Sally Lockhart series, set in Victorian London, and his other books, especially The Butterfly Tattoo and The Broken Bridge are also highly readable, for entirely different reasons.
-- Rolf Lindgren, cand.psychol
In fact, I don't think either Mrs. Coulter nor Asriel are evil. They are human and have flaws. It seems that the books' lacking clear-cut distinctions between good and evil is confusing to many Christian readers.
-- Rolf Lindgren, cand.psychol