His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass)

His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) | Philip Pullman | Genius

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His Dark Materials...

	His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) Philip Pullman Laurel Leaf, 2003 average customer review:based on 1081 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Not an antitheistic book at all, but one that opens the mind to all the glorious wonders of our universe

I've read a number of one-star reviews that compel me to write a review myself. What I think is disturbing is the lack of recognition of the spirituality in Phillip Pullman's writing that reviewers seem to have. This book is not a testament of atheism. On the contrary. There is a VAST difference between spirituality and religiosity. I think Pullman attempts to make these differences more stark in his story-telling.

That does not make one an atheist.

Like the characters in the book we are invited to look beyond our own limited vision of our world and our concepts of what we believe God to embody. Pullman is not out to destroy God, rather he is out to destroy the reification of spirituality. Those that criticize this series on this basis are missing the point entirely. I suggest you go back and re-read with an OPEN mind.

For those who have not read it, it's an enjoyable series that at times can drag a little bit in plot and have seemingly point-less diversions. The arc of the story is not limited to one book but rather all three. See it through and you will understand. Read with an open-mind...because when it comes down to it there is no other way to be.

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Genius

You know how there are those people who say that children's literature is meaningless? Personally, I think they all need to be forced down in a chair (perhaps as in "A Clockwork Orange") to read "His Dark Materials."

Like other reviewers, when I finished reading "Harry Potter" I was still on a fantasy kick, but I was rather jaded by the titles I saw out there. They seemed boring, predictable, and fluffy. I found Pullman long after he had written "The Golden Compass" (I first read the UK edition, which is called "Northern Lights") so all three books were out and ready for me to read. This was very lucky, as I raced through them in about two weeks between classes.

Honestly, Pullman deserves every comparison to Tolkien he's gotten, and then some. For me (and I LOVE J.K. Rowling), "His Dark Materials" was more engaging than "Harry Potter." Don't get me wrong, "Harry Potter" will always, always be one of my favorite series. I just like Pullman better in different ways. For one, I found myself more able to relate to Lyra than to Harry. And the symbolism. Oh, the symbolism. Not heavy, not snobby- just amazing. The last installment, "The Amber Spyglass," absolutely left me sobbing. I was upset, I was happy, I was in awe, then I was more upset. I've had few books do that to me. They make me emotional, but they certainly don't make me sob for half an hour over the fate of the characters.

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"His Dark Materials" also read very similarly to Tolkien- it really reminded me of "The Hobbit," although a bit more complex. So somewhere between "The Lord of the Rings" and "The Hobbit" in terms of style. If you're a Tolkien fan, I'd give Pullman a try. It isn't an exact match, but then, where would the fun be? Pullman is more wry, a little more humorous, and extremely ironic.

The plots of all three books, both continuing and sub, were fast paced and creative. I know the book isn't marketed as science fiction, but it's almost more of that than a fantasy. Maybe some of you are familiar with the term steam-punk, referring to books/games where elements of the modern world, science fiction, and the Victorian (sometimes Medieval, but in Pullman's case, Victorian) age are thrown together to create a new world. This is the best example of steam-punk I've ever read. Not that, of course, you have to be familiar with the genre to enjoy "His Dark Materials" at all.

I guess it could be worth mentioning that the whole trilogy loosely parallels "Paradise Lost" and if you're a literature nerd, you might find that to be a bonus. But it's definitely not necessary to know beforehand or even afterwards.

It is, after all, mere "children's" literature.

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Really Liked These Books

These books are well-written. The action moves fast. While they are supposedly children's books, they are definitely for mature children, and adults will find them very exciting. Some people have religious issues with the books, but this was not a problem for me.

Mixed thoughts

I read this series solely because of all the anti-religious hype created by Christians surrounding the movie "The Golden Compass." I'm a Christian myself and believe that Christians are a fickle bunch of people who get excited about the littlest of things, so I thought I'd read this series for myself and decide if it was truly anti-religious or not.

The conclusion I came to was: yes and no. The first two books barely touch religion at all. Sure, we mention the church and some of the weird and evil things the church is dabbling in. But the church scenes are few and far in between. The Golden Compass is more the story of Lyra traveling all over creation with a ton of different characters. Some people praise the first book as being very exciting and whatnot, but I find it absurd in many cases all the things Lyra does. I frankly don't care about her adventure or what she is doing at all. And the first three or four chapters of the book--entirely boring. Some people write that they were hooked within the first few pages--I don't see how that's possible. The first chapter was the worst chapter of the entire series. I would've put the book down right then and there but I kept reading, hoping to find what all the controversy was about.

And I couldn't find much controversial in the first two books. Many people write that these books aren't for children. Perhaps you could argue that the violence is too much, or some of the weirder parts are too much (like the group of people that drill holes in their skulls. What's that all about?). But from a religious standpoint, there's nothing in these first two books that's going to derail a child's faith and make him or her into an atheist.

The thing that bothered me the most about the first book (and all the books really) was the concept of daemons. What's the point of them? They serve no purpose at all! Pan rarely talks to Lyra, and when he does, he has nothing interesting to say. Why? Because he is Lyra! He's just an outward extention of her. Daemons rarely contribute anything in the fight scenes, they rarely do anything practical. They are simply there for cute purposes. In The Golden Compass, the kids think it's SO HORRIBLE that daemons are separated from their partners, but as a reader, I could care less. And that's bad that I don't care about daemons, because the Golden Compass is largely focused on them.

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The second book wasn't much better than the first. Other reviewers point out Will's stoic nature and the cliched plot of sick mother, father gone left him. I must admit, though, that the subtle knife and the altheithometer are two very cool fantasy items. The amber spyglass, however, was introduced way too late in the third book and isn't that impressive at all. I could've done without it.

The third book is where everybody has problems with, in a literary and religious sense. First literary. The book has too much going on at once. The angels. The intention craft. Mary's spill into another world with wheeled creatures. None of this is needed. Metatron? As somebody else said, Metatron feels more appropriate in a Japanese mecha anime.

The most exciting part of the book was the land of the dead scene, which I felt was a satisfying explanation of death, but the scene was way too long. I was waiting for the church stuff to explode wide open, but it never did. Throughout the whole series we are told how bad the church is, but we never really see them taken on and attacked. Instead Pullman's church does not in any way reflect the real church of today, so it's hard to take any of his criticisms seriously.

And then we get to the confrontation with the Authority. Completely anticlimatic. And it comes roughly 2/3 through the book? This is the first book I've ever read where somebody kills God, and the scene with God was only a few pages and not what I was expecting.

And what happens after God dies? The story drags on and brings up unnecessary details. Daemons being separated. Will getting a daemon. Another convoluted explanation of Dust. And windows needing to be closed up. It goes on and on past the point of caring for this reader.

In the end: I'm glad to have read the series, I won't sell it but I probably won't read it again. The criticism of Christianity didn't bother me because the Christianity of Pullman in no way correlates with the real Christianity of our world. If the church really was like the church in the book, then I too would become an atheist. But it's not. Parents have nothing to fear from this book. I suspect most kids will have a hard time really following the criticism of religion. In all, a substandard fantasy work that will only be remembered for being the first major fantasy work by an atheist targeted at children. I think people who praise this series are more in love with the IDEA of an atheist fantasy story than they are with the actual execution of the story.

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