His Dark Materials Review
8/10
Author: Kevin Kurtz Date: 3/19/08 Time: 11:55AM
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials Trilogy is an interesting book to say the very least. It consists of three books: (hence, why it is called a trilogy) The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. (Many of you will know that The Golden Compass was recently released as a Major Motion Picture) The movie itself, I feel, left out a lot of the important parts of the book and toned down the religious views quite a bit. I don't think that it gave a proper impression of the story and I am somewhat dissapointed in it. The books however, are quite the opposite. I was more than satisfied with the series. I decided to read it when I heard all of the complaints about The Golden Compass movie. All of the religious freaks, it seems, thought it would be okay to throw a hissy fit over it's production. That of course caught my attention and I had to see what all the fuss was really about. I'll desribe later my feelings on these arguments, but first, let's look at the books.
The story is about a 12 year old girl named Lyra who lives in an alternate universe to our own. A universe where people's souls walk beside, instead of inside, them. These souls are refered to as daemons. They have distinct personalities, can speak, and usually take on a form that is fitting to the individual (before you hit puberty they are free to change shape as they see fit). There are many of these seperate universes where changes can range from something small, to the very fundamentals in which we have built our skeletal structure. Pullman has done an exceptional job of describing every detail in each of these universes, allowing us to fully imagine what living there would be like. You get to be fully involved in riding talking polar bears, flying in balloons, dealing with witches, fighting off evil armies, love, hate, fear, death, escape from death, and the ever existing possibility of multi-universal destruction. In short, Great Fun! Her quest is, without ruining the story, to destroy god; trust me, that doesn't give away much if any of the storyline. (Now you see why the religious nutjobs were flipping out...)
The characters themselves are so in-depth that you can't bear to not love them. Lyra is sweet, but also menacing. You will follow her through all three books and she will become a part of you as you watch her learn and shape into a different person entirely. Will is a murderer, but will become your best friend. You will meet him in the sequel and he will quickly become as important to the story as Lyra herself. Lee, the routy texan, is wise and true and will help Lyra in any way he can. Lord Asriel, Lyra's uncle, is the cause of most of the adventure. He actually created a great deal of the problems that the children must face. Finally, Lady Coulter will frighten and surprise any reader again and again. All the characters have full back stories and their personalities are described in such detail that you might even find yourself talking to them from time to time (maybe that's just me, anyone else talk to fictional people?)
The second book, unfortunately, can get a little long through the middle, even though it is the shortest of the books. But the third is so phenomenal that you will be ripped right back into the story. The reason for an 8/10 instead of a 9 or 10/10 is the second book. The first and third were well worth the time. Don't get discouraged though, finish the second one and you will be happy that you did. The whole concept of these books was very innovative. The name "His Dark Materials" comes from a line in Paradise Lost which, from what I hear since I haven't read it, is, religiously, very similiar to this book, only opposite. (There were a lot of commas in that sentence)
Now that I've told you a little about the story and it's characters, I will tell you why you should not be offended by this book. 1) It's FICTION! Anyone who condemns a work of fiction for being creative beyond where anyone else I have read has dared to tread is just ignorant. This is the purpose of a good scifi/fiction novel, to create a world that shocks and confuses you; to be creative as humanly possible. Pullman has a masterpiece in my opinion, because he does just that. 2) This book is showing the harm in being so very wrapped up in your religion. It's not saying don't believe in something, it's just saying don't follow blindly. I don't see it as an atheist book at all. It's more of a "stop being dumb and believing the Catholic Church when they say the world is flat and the Earth is the center of the Universe" sort of book. Don't be one of these people, read it and judge for yourself. It is not full of hatred or evil, it is full of love, caring, and peace... the exact opposite of what these anti-golden compass church flyers are trying to tell you. and 3) They do not hurl flames of lies about Jesus or any other religious figure (with the exception of God himself). Again, fictional. This book is simple presenting an idea in a world far distant from our own where events like this could be true. It doesn't discriminate against your religion or anyone else's and it definitely doesn't say stop going to church because you are dumb for being a believer.
To conclude my long rant about this amazing novel (novels?), it was incredible, and you should definitely go out of your way to read it. Anything that can create a vision of a new world, with hopes and dreams that I wouldn't have thought of is worth reading, but this book will surprise you all the way through... and honest, I cried :)
