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His Dark Materials (Trilogy) 140

Posted by timothy from the you-must-be-this-tall dept.
canadian_right writes: "Philip Pullman has written a great fantasy adventure that children and adults will enjoy. A richly detailed alternate universe is presented in The Golden Compass, and we are introduced to the heroine of the three books, Lyra Belacqua. The story starts off quickly and holds your interest with a series of engaging and imaginative adventures for the length of the three novels. Philip Pullman pulls you effortlessly into these alternate worlds, and holds your attention with a wealth of detail that brings to life the sights and sounds of these new worlds. Some worlds are just a bit different from our own, while others are completely new." Read on for his brief review of the books in this trilogy.
The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass
author Philip Pullman
pages (See each)
publisher Knopf
rating 8
reviewer canadian_right
ISBN (See each)
summary A trilogy written for kids but deep enough for adults to enjoy.

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.
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His Dark Materials (Trilogy) More

His Dark Materials (Trilogy)

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  • Ad copy?! (Score:1, Flamebait)

    by Grendel Drago ( 41496 )
    Since when did Slashdot start putting the ads in the stories themselves?

    Seriously, this thing reads like a marketing release. There's a reason book reviewers are called critics. Gushing praise for something I've never heard of smells a bit too much like a payoff for my liking.

    I'm very disappointed.

    (Oh, and it's my 400th post. Be happy for me. Whee.)

    --grendel drago
    • We run / decline those just as happily as we run / decline positive ones.

      Our (reader-submitted) book reviews tend to come from readers who liked a book or series enough to finish it because they wanted to, not because they had to. Sometimes, they're from people who disliked a book enough to submit a review partly as a warning to others (like the recent T1 survival guide).

      And since when has Slashdot provided an affiliate link to a bookstore? I'm not sure, but it's been a couple of years. That doesn't obligate anyone to buy; there are a lot of online book vendors who would happily accept your filthy lucre :)

      timothy

    • Re:Ad copy?! (Score:2, Insightful)

      by sketerpot ( 454020 )
      The big thing that pisses me off about most critics is that they hardly ever like anything they review. They will grasp at straws to avoid giving something the good review it deserves. But this review was written by an ordinary human who liked these books enough to write a review for Slashdot. Plus, it's nice to have links to somewhere--preferably somewhere familiar, like amazon.com--where you can buy the books.
      • Written by an ordinary human? Pleeeaase! If the person that wrote this "review" doesn't work for the marketing department of the publisher, then he bloody well ought to!
    • The only children's author to win the Whitbread award ever? And for the last book in the reviewed series?

      http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/entertainment/a rt s/newsid_1776000/1776393.stm

      I loved the series as well, and don't think the praise is at all overdone.

      Seriously, a little investigation before lashing out.

  • but I'm gonna say it anyhow. This story caught my interest, as most /. book reviews tend to focus on nonfiction works (programming guides, business model stuff, etc). It made me think about how long it's been since I made the time to dive into a good fantasy novel.

    I suppose writing thousands of lines of code a week, maintaining various databases, and burning through caffeine/nicotine supplies is okay (and pays the bills), but it really isn't *life*. Okay, it might be life at the moment, but that begs the question: should it be? I know I could use some more balance in my life... I used to read one to two books a day as a teenager (and somehow still found the time to generate heaps of code). I suppose it's just something to think about...

    • I found myself spending way too much time at the keyboard, so I've taken the pledge recently: Every night, off to bed 30-60 minutes earlier than "usual", with book in hand. And not just any books: have promised self to strictly rotate between three areas of interest (sci-fi/fantasy, technical/computer stuff, and religion, not that you care, but just to illustrate; YMMV).
  • I read the books when they came out, though I lost interest really after the first one. But in the UK, the first book is called Northern Lights, not the Golden Compass.

    I assume this is like Harry Potter, where the publishers renamed the books for the USA.

    • Re:In the UK..... (Score:3, Interesting)

      by Kintanon ( 65528 )
      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
      • I'm pretty sure everyone in the US knows what the Northern Lights are. If nothing else, they learned from Balto :)

        Having read (and absolutely adored, and would recommend without hesitation, although the so-called "satisfying conclusion" will drive you mad) all three books, "The Golden Compass" is quite a good title for the first one. In fact, I would say it was a much better title, because Philip Pullman decided to title the other two books after the important magical objects that are introduced in them, creating a nice parallelism.

        Did I mention that I loved these books? I told both my English teachers in high school to read them, used Philip Pullman's Carnagie medal acceptance speech [randomhouse.com] in my collage admissions essay, recommended them again to my advisor freshman year, put them on display when I worked at the public library....

        Meghan

      • But most of us have heard of those things. Even if we didn't know about them in ordinary ways, we've seen them on Jonny Quest cartoons! (seriously)

      • Re:In the UK..... (Score:3, Informative)

        by SamHill ( 9044 )

        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 [darkmaterials.com] on this fan site [darkmaterials.com].

        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 [hpgalleries.com] (the U.S. editor) and the ``Word Gallery'' [hpgalleries.com] for a list of the changes.)

    • Read all about it:

      http://www.darkmaterials.com/faq1.htm#1-1

  • Ummm... Suck. (Score:2, Troll)

    by Kintanon ( 65528 )
    As much as I don't normally like to criticise the editors selection of articles on the site I fail to see how this trilogy is in any way relevant to anything any of us are interested in. It's target age group is obviously 13-16 or thereabouts, it's nothing innovative or even particularly good. The plot is cliche to say the least and has been done better in several other novels available at your local library. One of the best has some spectacular cover art involving a girl looking through a floor length mirror and seeing another world (Not Through the Looking Glass) but I can't remember the title off hand. This trilogy is just plain not worth the attention of Slashdot.

    Kintanon
    • Are you thinking of either A Man Rides Through or Mirror of Her Dreams by Stephen Donaldson(don't have them handy to remember which, but both covers involve mirrors and women, but only one is floorlength I think).
      • Yup! Mirror of Her Dreams AND a Man Rides Through. Both of them are quite good. And I REALLY liked the cover art.

        Kintanon
        • It's odd that you would recommend either of those Donaldson books -- in my opinion, they are his two worst. The only thing he's done that is first-rate have been the Covenant books. And I say that as someone who's read all his novels, has two of them autographed and whose family plays bridge regularly with Donaldson. Pullman's trilogy is easily superior to anything of Donaldson's except the Covenant books (which I consider to be both genre and almost-but-not-quite literary classics).

          Having said that, I will agree that Pullman's trilogy is quite overrated. It is quite inventive in its specifics (not theme), well written and certainly of sufficient quality to be not limited to merely children. And it is far more rich than the Potter books (though certainly not as charming). However, I strongly suspect that a good portion of the praise its generated is the result of its rather astonishingly anti-Christian stridency. I'm not myself a particular fan of Christianity, but I found the books' polemics to be their nearly-fatal flaw. But then I don't really like to be beaten over the head with a brick by any author -- I find "The Poisonwood Bible" similarly off-putting. (Indeed, Tolstoy's occasional lengthy narrative-destroying monologues in "War and Peace" are that book's only flaws. I mention this only to make the point that I don't tolerate such heavy handedness even in the novel I believe to be the first among all.)

          I also caution everyone not to judge a book by its marketing. Just because it is marketed -- or even written -- for children doesn't mean that it is necessarily any less deserving of adult respect or interest. "Alice in Wonderland" was/is a "children's book" but I might even include it as part of the western canon (I say that as someone who has had a "Great Books" education).


    • > It's target age group is obviously 13-16 or thereabouts

      Probably describes most of the trolls here.

      > it's nothing innovative or even particularly good.

      We have a lot of Micorsoft fans here too.

      > The plot is cliche to say the least and has been done better in several other novels available at your local library.

      That part is to keep our editors happy editors happy.

      See, the book has something for almost everyone on Slashdot. Except those overpriced UNIX gurus mentioned in the other article.

    • Yeah, like those "Harry Potter" books. Kids stuff! Who cares if one won a Hugo?

      You're the reason Anime has such a hard time catching on in the US. "But it's just cartoons!"

      BTW, I've read the Dark Materials. It's gripping.

      Buy it.
      • Bullshit. I LOVE Anime. It's original, the plots are innovative (Or horribly silly, depending on what you watch). Cowboy Bebop and Trigun are two of the best works of fiction I've ever envountered. Hikaru No Go is also an amazing series as it manages to portray Go in a very action oriented and interesting light. Samurai X (Roruni Kenshin (sp?)) is another amazing series. I love anime. But this trilogy is not on the level of any of the above. This is a third rate set of novels by a second rate author. Bah. There are better books of similar plot that could be reviewed. And for the record, I liked Harry Potter, but I wouldn't recommend those be reviewed on slashdot either for the same reasons. It's just not relevant to the audience in my opinion.

        Kintanon
    • To each his own. I find Pullman's invention breathtaking.
      The first volume (which BTW was titled The Northern Lights in its British incarnation) was exciting and each of the following ones gets even better. Pullman's writing is gorgeous. In ...mumble... years of reading fantasy I've rarely come across anything as good as this. I'd warmly recommend it to anyone from 12 up.
    • Maybe I've just read too many of them, but these off-the-cuff gripe-fests re: any work of fiction (movie, book, whatever) are starting to sound like they are written with a Perl script.

      blah blah blah not relevant blah blah blah not innovative blah been done better blah blah better example blah...

      Couldn't it just be "I didn't like it?"
    • As much as I don't normally like to criticise the editors selection of articles on the site I fail to see how this trilogy is in any way relevant to anything any of us are interested in.

      Speak for yourself. I work in a library and have read the trilogy, and found it very enjoyable.

      The plot is cliche to say the least and has been done better in several other novels available at your local library

      So is negatively critiquing a book without reading it, but I digress. It doesn't take a brainiac to realize that there are only a finite number of plots. Two ingredients that make a 'cliche' plot bearable are character development and narrative style. Certainly LOTR has a well-worn plot, but Tolkein developed believeable characters and swathed them in pretty good narrative (although I had to try more than once to get through the plodding narrative in the House of Tom Bombadil...)

      One of the best has some spectacular cover art involving a girl looking through a floor length mirror and seeing another world.

      And, as we all know, 99% of the time you can judge a book by it's cover art. (then again, was the cover done by Boris Vallejo? LOL)

      This trilogy is just plain not worth the attention of Slashdot.


      Nor is a kneejerk, unenlightened/unenlightening review.

      Speaking for myself, I found Pullman's trilogy a nice diversion from the standard fantasy/alternate reality sci-fi fare. Sure, it isn't Beowulf or Tale of Two Cities, but it sure as hell beats a lot of crap I've tried to muck my way through (some of which may simply not be my cup of tea, so I won't trash them by name here).

      I heartilly recommend Pullman's trilogy, and I am a regular /. reader.

    • The plot is cliche to say the least and has been done better in several other novels available at your local library
      As Pullman himself says at the end of the third volume, the whole thing is just a reworking of Milton [paradiselost.org]. Plot is kind of beside the point.

      In a certain kind of literature, including most of the Dead White Guy canon, plot is kind of beside the point. The stories are taken from folklore, popular history, and religious tradition, so everybody already knows the story. It's all about the presentation.

      That being said, I didn't care for this trilogy either. Not because it was written for kids -- given the kind of "grown up" fiction most Slashdotters read, we're in no position to be snobbish. Just wasn't a very imaginative telling.

      But tell me this. If unoriginal stories badly told are Uncool, why is that idiot Harry Turtledove so popular?

    • Some Slashdot readers have children that might like something like this. I know I'm always trying to find books to read to my little daughter that aren't totally stupid. I'd be interested in any of the books you mention that do this plot better. If they feature girls in the staring role (something most fantasy books lack) so much the better.
  • well-drawn characters, detailed worlds, and intricate plotting

    I agree with the first two; it is well written. Realise, however, that it is a children's book. They plot may be intricate for its target audience, but it's been a while since I was that young, but it it is pretty much A to B to C stuff for adults. There is a single plot line for much of the 1st book and the latter books have a couple of sets of protagonists.

    The trilogy is an entertaining, but quick, read for an adult.

  • Better book review? (Score:3, Funny)

    by NMerriam ( 15122 ) <NMerriam@artboy.org> on Friday March 29, 2002 @11:14AM (#3247970) Homepage

    Could this be a little more vague? I still have honestly no idea what the heck these novels are about in any way whatsoever.

    Saying "the character goes on adventures and meets new people in amazing places" describes about 75% of the books in existence.

    "It's a great fantasy book about characters that do things!" I'm not asking for the Cliffs Notes version of the book, but even the blurb on the back dust cover could have told me more about why I'd like to read it that this "review".
    • The back cover is here [amazon.com].
    • This book review looks like EVERY book report i ever did in high school, since i would never read the books :)

      "Uhh The protaganist played an important role in this book because he/her was necessary for plot development and allowed the story to unfold to the maximum ability of the writers imagination!"


    • > Could this be a little more vague? I still have honestly no idea what the heck these novels are about in any way whatsoever. Saying "the character goes on adventures and meets new people in amazing places" describes about 75% of the books in existence.

      I've narrowed it down to a review of either Scooby Doo or Pokémon, but I can't refine it any further than that.

    • It's a shame that this is such a crappy book review because I rather liked the books. They really are worth reading. There's a more in depth review on salon [salon.com]. The review is just for The Amber Spyglass, but it talks about the whole trilogy.

      • hey, wow -- thanks, that was a good review. i am interested in picking up the books after the solon review. Even the Amazon information and book cover blurb didn't seem very exciting...
  • I agree that this is more like a plug for the books than a review, but I have all three books in hardback, and I loved them when I first read them in middle school. It is really enjoyable and I recommend that any young adult that is questioning his faith or can suspend belief enough to where the book isn't "damaging" should read these books. They really are good.
  • how much oif the harry potter audience can it grab. I was glad to see this comparison this is a serious question- both my girlfriend(22) and my little brother(15) liked the potter books- is this something they'd like? is it the same style, and the same age group? reading level? I plan on passing this review on to both of them.

  • detailed alternate universe (Score:3, Funny)

    by totallygeek ( 263191 ) <sellis@totallygeek.com> on Friday March 29, 2002 @11:17AM (#3247989) Homepage
    This is an interesting term, and I would suggest other geek reading that hits closer to our own universe. I recently read The Guns of the South [amazon.com], and I must say that it was really an interesting read. It is a detailed alternate universe were the Confederate states beat the Union in the Civil War. Basically, some guys sympathic to the south come back from the future and bring unlimited ammunition for the AK-47's they provide Lee's troups.


    Turtledove has long been talked about on Usenet's alt.history.what-if and is known for his meticulous detailing of historical events. Other books he has out discuss alien invasions in the height of WWII, Columbus finding apemen in the new world, and alien colonization. Check him out -- I picked up all his books at Half Price Books [halfpricebooks.com] for under $25.

  • I read this books after a local bookseller recommended it. This is _not_ a good book, the jacket compares this series to Tolkien and Harry Potter, and this is a huge overstatement. Her mother (the main antagonist) is a direct rip off from the villain in 101 Dalmatians. I wouldn't recommend this to anyone older than 12. This author may be someone to watch in the future, but don't waste your time on this series.

    Goofy story, totally unbelievable, choppy and incoherent. The armored bear is neat, but plays a relatively small part in this elementary pointless story.

    There are so many good sci-fi fantasy books available, and this book is not one of them.

    The author tries hard to captivate the reader by twisting the motives of the characters in the middle of the story. There is absolutly no reward for finishing this book.

    I wouldn't be so adamantly opposed to this book if the publisher didn't compare it to so many great books.

    "If you like wasting your time reading half hearted empty stories about character you don't care about, you'll love this book." - whatisausername99
    • Her mother (the main antagonist) is a direct rip off from the villain in 101 Dalmatians.

      Not really. She's much more creepy. Her actions at the end of the trilogy don't make much sense though.
    • I wouldn't be so adamantly opposed to this book if the publisher didn't compare it to so many great books.

      I wonder how often reviews such as this become "well, the publisher said something I didn't agree with" and so the book becomes "a mindless droning mish-mash of boring one-dimensional characters that nobody cares about, least of all the author. I found it to be distressingly dull, pointless, vapid, inane and an absolute waste of time. Didn't get past the first chapter. Don't waste your time."

      See? Anyone can gripe.

  • Mixed feelings (mild spoilers) (Score:3, Insightful)

    by hawkfish ( 8978 ) on Friday March 29, 2002 @11:20AM (#3248003) Homepage
    I have a lot of mixed feelings about this series, but I have to say I did enjoy it despite some very upsetting flaws.

    Good things: Very well written, beautiful even, in an almost classical sort of way. Strong characters and strong emotions, serious coming of age issues. His compassion for his protaganists is deep.

    Bad things: I hate it when people use Everett-Wheeler as a narrative device because EW basically destroys the meaning of human action. Think of it - there is another universe where the characters make all the same choices until suddenly they do something random. Or there is another universe in which the same events happen, except a bee farts in the Andromeda galaxy. Posit parallel universes if you like, but leave EW out of it.

    Ugly things: It was mentioned that "organized religion" is presented in a bad light. More accurately, Mr. Pullman appears to be some sort of rabid pagan with a massive chip on his shoulder. But that is his right. What bothered me was how he spent the first book describing a particularly ugly situation created by the church and condemning it, then had one of his protaganists (Asriel) do exactly the same thing (kill innocents for power) and portrayed it as virtue. As ethics, this is hypocricy, pure and simple. I suppose his characters are entitled to be hypocrites, but there is something smug and self-righteous about his presentation that goes beyond that and pissed me off.
    • except a bee farts

      The alternate worlds are very different though. Modern Oxford, Oxford 100 years ago with magic, the land with the wheeled creatures.

      Lyra never meets another Lyra who happened to have strawberry jam instead of raspberry one breakfast 3 years and is therefore now queen of the world. The characters never(*) meet alternate versions of themselves at all. (Unless you consider Will and Lyra to be too similar to each other for comfort)

      (*) It has been a while since I read it, so I hope my memory is correct.
    • To me, what Asriel did was the heart of the first book. Pullman portrays it was what it was, an evil act. One of the questions that drive the trilogy is how much evil is permissble in an attempt to defeat a greater evil.

    • you missed the whole point (Score:4, Insightful)

      by pezpunk ( 205653 ) on Friday March 29, 2002 @11:48AM (#3248176) Homepage
      you missed the point of the whole series entirely.

      [SPOILER] the point was that lord asrael's anti-church AND the established Church were BOTH evil. they were mirror images of each other. both strove to enslave all creation for their tyranny.[/SPOILER]

      Pullman is condeming THOSE THAT SEEK POWER, and those who seek to subjugate others.

      this is a fantastic and complex trilogy, miles beyond harry potter. it's more violent and far, far more intellectually stimulating. there's some heavy shit that goes down.

      i can see how the first book might be mistaken for just another teen novel. although i enjoyed it immensely, it is lighter fare than the other two. the trilogy gets increasingly darker and stranger as it goes. i can also see how christians would get pissed at the portrayal of god and many of the forces of Heaven and Hell, but see my comment above - he's not condemning christianity per-se, he's using christianity to condemn tyranny.

      • 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.

      • I feel that the point is that there were too many one sided characters, in the "good" sense. For example, there is little bad that Mary does. She's basically a soapbox for the authors own opinions, which basically are "religion thinks sex is bad, and it isn't". He treats his inter-sex relationships with little care as well, which is a failing of many male writers. (I, being male, prefer women writers on the whole for this reason).

        You're right that there are no "evil" characters. It's just that the good people are portrayed as being TOO good. The "evil" characters in the books don't have their "evilness" backed up with anything beyond sexual or power lust.

        The first book was great though. It just went downhill from there.

        BBK
      • Pullman may have been _trying_ to condemn those who seek power, but Asriel is a decidedly heroic figure. Asriel's fate seemed to me to be very much in line with Pagan ideas on action and reaction - he finds redemption in his Phyrric victory, and this is heroic.

        He is certainly given more sympathy than the church, which strikes me as a flaw. If the church leadership had been presented in a similarly complex manner, I don't think it would have bothered me as much. Yes, I am a Christian, but not of the kind that you seem to expect - I also enjoyed the Narnia books, but I am not blind or stupid and I would agree with some of Pullman's criticisms of the series while debating others.

        Pullman's portrayal of heaven and hell is nothing I haven't seen before, but it is also a caricature and I object to it on _literary_ grounds - if he wants to use aspects of christian authoritarianism to condemn tyranny (which as an anarchist I can definitely see the logic of) he should do a better job of it. That is all.
    • I'll admit that by book three I was quite tired of being told that organized religion of any sort was evil and inherently destructive. Don't get me wrong, there has been great evil worked by powerful religions, but also great good. It is a fundamental problem with any human organization.

      Mr. Pullman (as noted above) was more than a little in his treatment of religion seeming to indicate that the only real path to enlightenment was one of our own devising. *shrug* That's his right to think that, but don't spend 2/3 of a book in an otherwise reasonable series beating me over the head with such things. As a practitioner of organized religion, I am supposed to be sensitive to his viewpoint and celebrate our differences. But why can't he celebrate my differences too?
    • I did enjoy it despite some very upsetting flaws.
      <aol>Me too</aol>
      It was mentioned that "organized religion" is presented in a bad light. More accurately, Mr. Pullman appears to be some sort of rabid pagan with a massive chip on his shoulder.
      Right. In the first book, this is barely apparent, but by the third book it dominates the story. And he uses a straw man argument: he paints a particularly abhorrent church, and uses this to argue that all religion is authoritarian and evil.

      But actually I didn't think that this was the biggest flaw, because the church is so unrealistic as to be almost laughable, and his bias is so transparent that it is easily disregarded.

      Instead, I found the resolution of the story rather unsatisfying. The very ending of the series is rather moving, but the resolution before that of the problems facing the worlds (I'm trying to avoid spoilers here) is endearing but ... well, it doesn't really make sense. There's no attempt to explain why the thing that worked would have any effect at all.

      Despite these things, I too did enjoy the trilogy overall.

      • In the first book, this is barely apparent, but by the third book it dominates the story.

        This really put me off, too. I sort of had an "neat story, I wish he hadn't turned it into such a soapbox" feeling. Soured me on the whole series. And the whole ending just wasn't as "neat" as the setup.

        When I hit the line to the effect of "the entire Christian religion was built on a false foundation" that left me thinking "What about Jews and Muslims?" It just seemed to make the bias a little too in-your-face.
  • Or did anybody else think this was about Bill Gates?

    Book 1 - The Thieves of Basic
    Book 2 - DOS Is Not Done, Until Lotus Will Not Run
    Book 3 - 2,4,6,8 Times Heralding The END OF DOS

    Perhaps it'll end up like the Hitchhiker trilogy.

    Book 4 - Hello, It Looks Like You Are Trying To Write A Letter
    Book 5 - Mostly Secure-Like

    The hardcover Collection of His Dark Materials will include the short story "Young Ballmer Plays It Like A Sweaty Monkey"
  • The environment portrayed by the author is harsh and at times quite disturbing. Don't be fooled into thinking these are just Harry Potter rip-offs; they're scarier and contain more violence. However, they also are primarily philosophical works rather than your run of the mill sci-fi thrillers. Although entertaining, this series makes you really think and reconsider your view of the world.

    One Of My Top Three Favorite Linux Sites [monolinux.com]
  • By no means would I classify His Dark Materials as a random teenage book. Neither does it make the impression of an author struggling to combine mythology with technology, as another post suggested.
    IMHO, His Dark Materials is one the better fantasy books I have read during the course of the last year. For reference, I also very much enjoy reading Neal Stephenson, Tom Clancy, and Stephen King.
    His Dark Materials tells the story from the perspective of a teenage protagonist, but the topics include the power of organized religion, original sin, and other Fun Stuff(TM). BTW, the church in the books is not the christian church, although obviously based on it, so do not be turned away by the theological content. It is some of the old school, power monging organization stuff, that we have come to love from books/movies like The Name of the Rose.
    My recommendation to everybody is to go to the local library (which is a marvellous place to visit anyway) and read the first 50 pages. If you still don't like it, more power to you. But do not blindly turn down a good book, before you've given it its fair chance to prove itself.
    • My recommendation to everybody is to go to the local library (which is a marvellous place to visit anyway) and read the first 50 pages.

      I had the (mis)fortune to become acquainted with His Dark Materials just after the first book was published. I read it and was terribly hooked; I was heartbroken when the second book was delayed, pushed back, and delayed again - and then it came out! only to end on a far more perilous cliffhanger, and left me waiting even longer for the arrival of the third book.

      As has been mentioned, this is a book with many layers - a superficial adventure plot, a twisting ethical and moral-groud issue or eight, the banes that befall civilization...

      Not a book I suggest to immature people, be they eight or eighty, but highly recommended nonetheless.

  • Dark Materials: Slashdot relevance (Score:5, Informative)

    by Creosote ( 33182 ) on Friday March 29, 2002 @11:33AM (#3248084) Homepage
    Pullman's trilogy is as relevant to Slashdot concerns as discussions of Tolkien, Orson Scott Card, maybe even Vernor Vinge. In particular, it has a lot to say (by implication) about the relation between organized religion and Big Science.

    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:

    All Bibles or sacred codes, have been the causes of the following Errors. 1. That Man has two real existing principles Viz: a Body & a Soul. 2. That Energy. calld Evil. is alone from the Body. & that Reason. calld Good. is alone from the Soul. 3. That God will torment Man in Eternity for following his Energies.
    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.
    • I really should have added the rest of the Blake quotation:
      But the following Contraries to these are True. 1 Man has no Body distinct from his Soul, for that calld Body is a portion of Soul discernd by the five Senses, the chief inlets of Soul in this age. 2. Energy is the only life and is from the Body, and Reason is the bound or outward circumference of Energy. 3 Energy is Eternal Delight
    • Like William Blake, he rereads Milton to make Satan the good guy (sort of: the Satan figure in the trilogy is attractive but flawed).

      I've read the trilogy, but I'm not sure who you're referring to. Who is the Satan figure in His Dark Materials?

  • I'm midway through the third book now. IMHO, the books are a quick entertaining read with some interesting ideas, especially intriguing to me are twists on organized religion. The stories are definitely plot driven, and the characters are pretty transparent and simple -- but their actions do surprise you sometimes.

    If I had to guess, I'd say these were aimed at people in their mid-to late teens. Although they fall in the fantasy genre, which I outgrew in favor of sci-fi, the ideas here are new and cool in a sci-fi kind of way.

    The first and second books definitely leave you hanging; the three making up one continuing story. I guess I'll have to finish the third before I can say whether Pullman pulls his ideas into a cohesive point of view or if he just dangles them there as food for thought.

    As I said these are quick and easy reads, and make good travelling books. YMMV.

  • A charming first book, the rest is poo (Score:3, Informative)

    by GMFTatsujin ( 239569 ) on Friday March 29, 2002 @11:51AM (#3248196) Homepage
    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.
    • i thought Pullman built up their affections quite well. from the moment Will was first introduced, i could see Lyra's fascination with him, his strength, and all the things he knew that she didn't. i thought their falling in love seemed quite natural and real, quite the opposite of tacked on at the end. i thought he did a good job of building real romance(albeit, subtly!) from the very beginning.
  • 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.
  • The Amber Spyglass, however, completely fell apart. Pullman introduced another world which was not nearly so interesting as Lyra's world or the world of Cittagaze (sp?!), and had to waste half of the book talking about it. The character of Mary added nothing to the story, and could have been cut. I would have liked to see more of the workings of Asriel's army on a lower level, and more philosophy -- just how do we know that God was to blame for the actions of the Church? How would Will react if he had learned who had been in that crystal chamber he had cut open? Etc.

    The gay angels ("They're not gay. They're puppets. They don't even have legs.") were a nice touch, tho.

  • His Dark Materials is Pullman's response to Narnia (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Krow10 ( 228527 ) <cpenning@milo.org> on Friday March 29, 2002 @12:07PM (#3248296) Homepage
    An interesting article by the author of the trilogy can be found here [crlamppost.org]. 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
    • 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.

      Hint: Read the excerpt of Paradise Lost at the beginning of the first book....
      • Or better yet, read all of Paradise Lost. The best thing I can say about His Dark Materials was that it led me to read Paradise Lost. Milton did it much better than Pullman. As others have mentioned, the first book is great, but the series collapses under its own illogic.

        If any of the religious zealots who burn Harry Potter sat down and read His Dark Materials, they would probably want to burn Pullman at the stake.
  • Perhaps this review isn't all that relevant to Slashdot. I actually found that this trilogy covers the same theological ground as many of the D.C. horror comics such as Hellbazer and Preacher in which the God of the Bible is not necessarily the creator of the universe but actually one political faction pushing its own laws, and fighting against another political faction with a different agenda. In other words, what happens if you read the Bible as divine propaganda rather than as divine truth. While The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is a revision in Gospels, Dark Materials starts with Milton and touches on Dante. In the process Pullman tackles some of the more difficult problems in theology such as the nature of sin, and what really triggered "the fall from grace."

    In a way, the Dark Materials trilogy is related to the Lord of the Rings in that the Lord of the Rings is basically the results of a writer playing with language and history, while the Dark Materials trilogy is the results of a writer playing around with theology. At any rate, it surprises me that Dark Materials has not received the same level of hostility as Harry Potter which never gets political beyond vague mumblings about anti-muggle prejudice.

    I think that shoving this trilogy into the "young adults" category is rather a misnomer. In fact, I find a disappointing that the best works of fantasy writing including the Earthsea series and a fair number of works by Ray Bradbury get shoved into the "young adults" shelves and never get taken seriously. Granted there are some serious flaws. The entire talking companion animal idea has become a personal pet peeve of mine, but Pullman does manage to do something different with it.

  • The first book is OK, but... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by blamanj ( 253811 ) on Friday March 29, 2002 @12:14PM (#3248343)
    While these three books are targeted at the juvenile audience, it is likely that they'll get additional attention from older F&SF readers because of the success of Harry Potter.

    I must say that I thought "The Golden Compass" was quite well done. It's original, dark (so much so that I kept the book for a few years before giving it to my Harry Potter-loving niece), and inventive.

    The two sequels, however, I found very disappointing. Rather than inventing a parallel universe with it's own rules and logic, Pullman succumbs to the same draw that ruins much of science fiction on TV - he want's his world to be "real," and starts throwing in concepts from particle physics to "explain" his universe.

    If you cringe every time they say things like "his DNA is reconfiguring" on Star Trek, you'll probably have the same reaction to the "explanations" in Pullman's last two books.

    Better choices for fantasy: the "Earthsea" books by Ursula LeGuin (especially for kids), and for older readers, Stephen R. Donaldson's two "Thomas Covenant" trilogies.
  • 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.

  • a bit about Pullman (and _His Dark Materials_) (Score:5, Interesting)

    by roffe ( 26714 ) <roffe@extern.uio.no> on Friday March 29, 2002 @12:26PM (#3248418) Homepage

    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.

  • I was totally prepared to like these after a review in the NY Times was positive. I read most sci fi and fantasy for fun, and agree with Pullman's angle on religion/science, and yet.... There's not much to save him from just not writing very well, being weak on style and characterization, having evil that's less threatening than Cruella Deville and seemingly directly modeled on her.
  • I'm just about finished with the second book in this trilogy. The thing I liked most about the first book was the exploration of Lyra's alternate earth. I absolutely loved the idea of the armored bears, bears with opposable thumbs who's metalcraft is far beyond the humans of her world. Also fascinating was the concept of daemons, physical representations of people's souls. A cool "alternate world" moment came when a character read from the book of Genesis. The passage was exactly the same as our except that it refered to Adam and Eve's daemons. Making something alien appear commonplace helps put the reader firmly "in" the world of the book. Like C.J.Cherryh, Pullman has that gift.
    A lot of the second book takes place in our world, which is relatively boring by comparison. I hope things pick up more in the third.
    I wouldn't characterize this a children's book. It assumes a fair knowledge of science, religion and world history. Also, bad things happen to children which are quite unsettling. I would place it in "young adult".
  • Halfway through the first book I thought, "this is crap" because it seemed like he was just randomly making up wierd stuff rather than putting together a coherent world.


    By the end of the book I thought it was brilliant-- in the second one I realized just how much stuff he had set up and in the third it came together perfectly.


    This is kind of Good Omens meets Lord of the Rings meets Narnia; they're really fantastic books and have child characters you will actually like. The boy, Will, is someone Lyra is obviously going to fall for but is a dark, twisted, dangerous kid. Pullman doesn't set him up as a psycho, but neither does it make Will ignorant, naive, or picture perfect. Will and Lyra are very smart but also endowed with emotions and motivations that come off as real, not just superbly crafted.


    The third book feels like Rendevouz with Rama (at least, before the Rama series started to suck!) You explore alien worlds and wonder how they got to be that way. Everything fits well into the plot, the theme, and the universe that he has created-- Pullman rocks.


    -magic

  • Really, can the world stand one more character named Asriel/Azriel? To me, choosing a name like this is the equivalent of declaring that you are creating a completely original superhero comic and the protagonist's name will be...Bat-Man! Maybe I'll write a play about a prince named Hamblet. It would at least have greater cultural meaning than "Asriel" does to the audience. The point is that 1) 'Asriel' doesn't mean anything to the majority of readers, 2) whether the author is making some sort of insightful reference to the mythological 'Azriel' is seemingly doubtful and, therefore, 3) It ends up coming off as just having been chosen because it's 'the kind of thing spooky sci-fi characters are named'. Next, it'll be 'Alucard'. Yeesh.
  • I really enjoyed all three books-- particularily the last one.

    However, the ending of the last one was really, really annoying to me. I recommend that anyone who reads the series skips the last ~10 pages.
  • Haven't read the books yet, but I looked through them last week at the library where I work and the name is taken from Milton's Paradise Lost.

    This passage (more or less, I don't remember exactly where it began and ended) is quoted on the first page of the book.

    Into this wilde Abyss,

    The Womb of nature and perhaps her Grave,
    Of neither Sea, nor Shore, nor Air, nor Fire,
    But all these in thir pregnant causes mixt
    Confus'dly, and which thus must ever fight,
    Unless th' Almighty Maker them ordain
    His dark materials to create more Worlds,


    In Paradise Lost this passage is talking about the chaotic elemental void from which God creates everything.

    Tim
  • Compare the church in His Dark Materials (HDM) trilogy to the pedophile priests in Boston.

    I had just finished reading The Golden Compass and started the Subtle Knife when the first pedophile priests were dragged out on the Boston Globe. The juxtaposition of the events of The Golden Compass with the behavior of these priests was Spooky. Example: Boys trapped by priests on camping trips vs church agents kidnapping boys and girls, taking them to Bolvangar...

    The scandal expanded as I progressed through the Subtle Knife and Pullman fleshed out his anti-religion theme. Somewhere in the second half of the book the reader learns that the subtle knife must be delivered to Asriel so he can defeat The Authority. Consider the Subtle Knife as the Sword of Justice striking at the church...

    Now I am near the end of the Amber spyglass-- The Authority has died-- and bishops are facing criminal charges.

    Prophecy!? No, but Quite the coincidence. If you are not reading HDM trilogy now, I recommend you wait a few months before doing so. At this particular time, it is rather disturbing.

    See the end of this article [boston.com] for an overview of the scandal.
  • The audio versions are superb. They use a full cast and have won all sorts of awards. I rented them from www.storytapes.net [storytapes.net]. You can also hear clips online.

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