Status
Available
Call number
Series
Collections
Publication
The Folio Society (2008), Fifth Printing 2021
Description
Lyra Belacqua tries to prevent kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments, helps Will Parry search for his father, and finds that she and Will are caught in a battle between the forces of the Authority and those gathered by her uncle, Lord Asriel.
User reviews
LibraryThing member LisaMaria_C
Pullman's His Dark Materials have been described as an "atheist's Narnia." It's certainly the only series I've read comparable in ambition and quality in the genre, and as such I think it shares the major attractions and weaknesses of C.S. Lewis' Christian fantasies for children. I read Tolkien, a
In the first book, Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) Lyra's world was so engaging, with its armored polar bears, it's flying witches, and above all its animal "daemon" companions, the polemic flew right over my head. In the second book, The Subtle Knife, primarily in our own world where we meet the boy Will Parry, it was more evident, but at the same time I loved how Pullman weaved together science and religion, dark matter and consciousness and sin, making his book as much science fiction as fantasy. I felt more mixed about the third book, The Amber Spyglass, at first, where these themes become more blatant. The first time I stopped two-thirds through at "No Way Out." Just as at first I first stopped at Narnia's first book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I felt the Christian allegory had overwhelmed story. I can point to the very passage that put me off in The Amber Spyglass, when Lyra explained to ghosts trapped in hell that if released "all the atoms that were them, they've gone into the air and the wind and the trees and the earth and all the living things. They'll never vanish. They're just part of everything." That seemed so...atheist dogma. I call myself an atheist, because it's what I am--someone who doesn't believe in a god or gods. But that doesn't mean I can't recognize the secular humanist cant that tries to find a substitute for the idea of heaven to put the fear of death at a distance, and I find the idea hollow and as much an orthodoxy in its way as Dante's heavenly spheres. A friend of mine feels that "Pullman's avil-shaped anti-church polemic ruined the series" and frankly, insert a "almost" between "polemic" and "ruined" and I don't disagree.
Nevertheless I returned to The Amber Spyglass, ironically after making my way through the rest of the land of Narnia, and I have to admit that despite how I feel about the, to my adult mind, blatant polemic, just as with Narnia, there is just so much about this novel and series I find brilliant. At the end of The Amber Spyglass, Pullman acknowledges a debt to Milton's Paradise Lost and the poet William Blake, and I can't help but admire how he used those materials. There are so many scenes that stand out to me in this third book. The description of the Underworld is riveting from the very beginning, where bare earth is "beaten flat by the pressure of millions of feet, even though those feet had less weight than feathers; so it must have been time that pressed it flat, even though time had been stilled in this place." Possibly the most moving scene in any of the books is the one in this book where Lyra parts with her daemon Pan at the shore of hell's river.
This really is an anti-Narnia, and I think I can appreciate His Dark Materials more for having read Narnia. In Narnia, to grow up is to lose access to that magical land, and it's better to die young than to lose innocence and with it faith. Pullman's message is the opposite. He values experience, knowledge, life. And while Narnia's ideal land is a kingdom, Pullman's is a republic. Although I'm more sympathetic to Pullman's vision, I'd give Narnia a tiny edge. I like the children of Narnia more than Lyra and Will. (Although Lyra grew on me, especially in the last book, and I liked Will from the beginning.) Narnia is more exuberant in its imagination, more charming, and it has more humor. But in the end I still do love Pullman's story as well, which feels more unified in its themes. (And it's not dated in its depictions of race and gender the way Narnia is at times, and the last paragraphs of The Amber Spyglass, unlike Narnia's final book The Last Battle, didn't leave me wanting to hurl the book against the wall; indeed the last line left me smiling.)
I'm not sure how children are taken by His Dark Materials. I know people who read The Chronicles of Narnia as children and loved it said the Christian allegory went over their head. Maybe the didacticism I find off-putting in Pullman would go over their heads as well, leaving them only with the wonder of flying witches, gypsies, armored polar bears, tiny people who fly on dragonflies, antelopes with trunks that roll around on seed pods, and above all the lovable animal daemons that are part of each human's soul. I wouldn't hesitate to give children--and adults who love fantasy--both sets of books as gifts: food for the mind and imagination.
Edit: A friend of mine said she did read it as a child, that she was 12 when The Amber Spyglass came out. She said she was aware of an underlying message, but it didn't bother her at the time, and the books were favorites, though she hasn't read them since. She thinks that children just have a lot more tolerance for being preached at than adults. She loved Narnia too btw.
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friend and fellow Christian of Lewis, didn't like Narnia. He stated in his introduction to Lord of the Rings that he doesn't like allegory, and that's exactly what those two series have in common, and it's both their weakness and strength. In the first book, Northern Lights (The Golden Compass) Lyra's world was so engaging, with its armored polar bears, it's flying witches, and above all its animal "daemon" companions, the polemic flew right over my head. In the second book, The Subtle Knife, primarily in our own world where we meet the boy Will Parry, it was more evident, but at the same time I loved how Pullman weaved together science and religion, dark matter and consciousness and sin, making his book as much science fiction as fantasy. I felt more mixed about the third book, The Amber Spyglass, at first, where these themes become more blatant. The first time I stopped two-thirds through at "No Way Out." Just as at first I first stopped at Narnia's first book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I felt the Christian allegory had overwhelmed story. I can point to the very passage that put me off in The Amber Spyglass, when Lyra explained to ghosts trapped in hell that if released "all the atoms that were them, they've gone into the air and the wind and the trees and the earth and all the living things. They'll never vanish. They're just part of everything." That seemed so...atheist dogma. I call myself an atheist, because it's what I am--someone who doesn't believe in a god or gods. But that doesn't mean I can't recognize the secular humanist cant that tries to find a substitute for the idea of heaven to put the fear of death at a distance, and I find the idea hollow and as much an orthodoxy in its way as Dante's heavenly spheres. A friend of mine feels that "Pullman's avil-shaped anti-church polemic ruined the series" and frankly, insert a "almost" between "polemic" and "ruined" and I don't disagree.
Nevertheless I returned to The Amber Spyglass, ironically after making my way through the rest of the land of Narnia, and I have to admit that despite how I feel about the, to my adult mind, blatant polemic, just as with Narnia, there is just so much about this novel and series I find brilliant. At the end of The Amber Spyglass, Pullman acknowledges a debt to Milton's Paradise Lost and the poet William Blake, and I can't help but admire how he used those materials. There are so many scenes that stand out to me in this third book. The description of the Underworld is riveting from the very beginning, where bare earth is "beaten flat by the pressure of millions of feet, even though those feet had less weight than feathers; so it must have been time that pressed it flat, even though time had been stilled in this place." Possibly the most moving scene in any of the books is the one in this book where Lyra parts with her daemon Pan at the shore of hell's river.
This really is an anti-Narnia, and I think I can appreciate His Dark Materials more for having read Narnia. In Narnia, to grow up is to lose access to that magical land, and it's better to die young than to lose innocence and with it faith. Pullman's message is the opposite. He values experience, knowledge, life. And while Narnia's ideal land is a kingdom, Pullman's is a republic. Although I'm more sympathetic to Pullman's vision, I'd give Narnia a tiny edge. I like the children of Narnia more than Lyra and Will. (Although Lyra grew on me, especially in the last book, and I liked Will from the beginning.) Narnia is more exuberant in its imagination, more charming, and it has more humor. But in the end I still do love Pullman's story as well, which feels more unified in its themes. (And it's not dated in its depictions of race and gender the way Narnia is at times, and the last paragraphs of The Amber Spyglass, unlike Narnia's final book The Last Battle, didn't leave me wanting to hurl the book against the wall; indeed the last line left me smiling.)
I'm not sure how children are taken by His Dark Materials. I know people who read The Chronicles of Narnia as children and loved it said the Christian allegory went over their head. Maybe the didacticism I find off-putting in Pullman would go over their heads as well, leaving them only with the wonder of flying witches, gypsies, armored polar bears, tiny people who fly on dragonflies, antelopes with trunks that roll around on seed pods, and above all the lovable animal daemons that are part of each human's soul. I wouldn't hesitate to give children--and adults who love fantasy--both sets of books as gifts: food for the mind and imagination.
Edit: A friend of mine said she did read it as a child, that she was 12 when The Amber Spyglass came out. She said she was aware of an underlying message, but it didn't bother her at the time, and the books were favorites, though she hasn't read them since. She thinks that children just have a lot more tolerance for being preached at than adults. She loved Narnia too btw.
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LibraryThing member Devil_llama
As someone who has never favored fantasy as a genre, I was pleasantly surprised at this trilogy, which is imaginative, entertaining, and does a lot mroe to get the science right (or at least rational) than most other books of this ilk. The heroine is a feisty young girl who is rendered more
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likeable by her lack of perfection and her stubborn nature. The twisting of the plot and the shifting of the characters until you can't tell who is the good guy, who is the bad guy, keeps you guessing all the time...much as in life. The depiction of the Catholic Church (the Magesterium) is delicious. Show Less
LibraryThing member keristars
One of my best friends absolutely loves the His Dark Materials trilogy and used to mention it or suggest it to me quite often. I always had a lot of other things to read, so I never quite got around to it until November 2007. I forget why exactly I decided to go ahead and purchase it, except that I
When I sat down to read it, I was expecting something like the Narnia series, since I'd always heard comparisons between the two, only a little more steampunk and less Tolkien-esque fantasy. Happily, His Dark Materials isn't much like The Chronicles of Narnia at all, except that they're both fantasy YA series with a heavy theme of religion. Also, despite the size of the two collections being about equal, HDM was a much quicker read. I guess that's most likely because stuff actually happens in the books and the main characters are actually interesting.
But though I greatly prefer HDM to Narnia, I'm not all that crazy about it. It's a good series, and the overall message is pretty good, being one about scepticism and not blindly following authority just because they're authority, but I felt that it went on a little too long and got a little too diactic towards the end - precisely the problems I have with Narnia, actually.
It's a very cool universe that Pullman created, and the series is a fun read and definitely worth a read, but it just wasn't the kind of book that I like to read. Maybe if it were a few hundred pages shorter and with fewer diversions from Lyra's point of view, I would have liked it much more.
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had some extra book money that month and film for the first book, The Golden Compass, was due to come out, and so the books were pretty much everywhere.When I sat down to read it, I was expecting something like the Narnia series, since I'd always heard comparisons between the two, only a little more steampunk and less Tolkien-esque fantasy. Happily, His Dark Materials isn't much like The Chronicles of Narnia at all, except that they're both fantasy YA series with a heavy theme of religion. Also, despite the size of the two collections being about equal, HDM was a much quicker read. I guess that's most likely because stuff actually happens in the books and the main characters are actually interesting.
But though I greatly prefer HDM to Narnia, I'm not all that crazy about it. It's a good series, and the overall message is pretty good, being one about scepticism and not blindly following authority just because they're authority, but I felt that it went on a little too long and got a little too diactic towards the end - precisely the problems I have with Narnia, actually.
It's a very cool universe that Pullman created, and the series is a fun read and definitely worth a read, but it just wasn't the kind of book that I like to read. Maybe if it were a few hundred pages shorter and with fewer diversions from Lyra's point of view, I would have liked it much more.
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LibraryThing member dcstarr
Book 1, The Golden Compass, has a great plot, fascinating characters. Highly recommended. Sadly, books 2 and 3 are poorly written, and are a great disappointment. If you loved the characters of book 1, be prepared for inexplicable 180 degree changes. For those concerned about the theology of a book
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of children's fantasy fiction (heavy sigh...) it's essentially a sophomoric and rather confused version of what Milton's Satan put forth. Not original, not coherent or compelling. Show Less
LibraryThing member dillytanty
A great trilogy, would have been better if more viciously edited. The hell/purgatory sequences added almost nothing except a layer of misery
LibraryThing member featherbear
Why does the author call attention to sleep so often? Re-read; originally so long ago it all seemed like new. Took a little bit longer to take off. Writing style rather pedestrian, but seemed richer than C.S. Lewis, Pullman's diametric opposite.
LibraryThing member eheleneb3
As of yet, I have only read The Golden Compass. I tried to recognize it for its own merits, but I couldn’t help but wish it was Harry Potter the whole time I was reading it. I liked the protagonist, Lyra, and I loved the human-daemon concept. As foreign as it was, I think the author did an
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excellent job of portraying that special relationship to the reader. But for me it was dark—and not in an intriguing, mysterious way, but in a dingy, dreary way. Something was missing. I’m not ready to give up on it yet though—maybe someday I’ll read the whole trilogy and understand it a little better. Show Less
LibraryThing member reading_fox
Reviewed in stages as I read each seperate book. Hence later paragraphs will have spoilers for the earlier books. Currently the subject of a film and some controversy.
Northern Lights.
Set in an alternative world this could be a better book than it is. few characters have nay depth to them, and
Lyra is a ward of the Master of Jorden college in Oxford University. Passively cared for by absent minded Scholars she and her daemon grew up wild and untaimed, best friends with Roger the kitchen boy and some gyptians. Lyra has the run of the college including the cellars and roof, and she manages to overhear all sorts information, little of which has any relevance until the spate of child disappearances catches up with her - her friend Roger is one taken by the mysterious Gobblers. She barely has time to get to grips with this before she meets the glamorous Mrs Coulter who whisks her away from the stuffy college. Roger however is not forgotten and Lyra emabrks on a quest beset with danger to rescue him from the North. Here she meets the fabulous armored bear Iorek Byornson and slowly learns the meaning of the mysterious Dust mentioned so long ago back in Jorden college.
At times fascinatingly written, but sometimes infuriating too. The POV switches to some minor characters in order to furnace us with some obscure background information. This is annoying and frequently unecessary. The foreshadowing that tales place on these digressions is particularly irksome.
The world is badly constructed. Set in an rigid late 1800s society it maintains some unexpected technologies from today - nuclear power for example - withotu any of the practical concerns. However the underlying background of magic and the daemons is very well done. The people are thin. Personally I don't see the controversy. The church is portrayed as a corrupt beuorocratic organisation, which it has been on many previous occasions, It could be any of many other fantasy novels which utilise the same theme. Enjoyable, but could be better.
The Subtle Knife.
Better all around really. Many of the complaints of the previosu book have been rectified, either deliberately or through happy chance. It is set in the 'real' world, so the narrative construction is better, and the foreshadowing had disappeared. There are only a couple of digressions to minor characters, and we've already met them so it is more in their continuiing stories.
Will lives in our Oxford orphaned since the disappearance of his father in an expedition to the North when he was small. His mother needs his help suffereing from Alzheimer's although no specific diagnosis is given. Following a burglery Will escapes into another world and meets Lyra. Lyra decides to aid Will on his quest to find his father, which takes the book into the first on the controversial areas.
Some of Pullman's best writing comes as he trys to expound on why there should be a war against the authority - are humans independant or submissive. Which should we be, and what are the consequences of either?
However the monologues are probably not very suitable in terms of keeping the plot moving.
I felth this was a much better bookt than the previous, but the characters are still pretty straightforward. It ends on a terrible cliffhanger with no resolution at all.
The Amber Telescope.
This concludes the story an is both the best and the worst of the books. It contains some of the best plots, with twists and turns, plenty of action, some interesting new characters and plenty of suspense. However it also contains some frightful moralising which just isn't needed. We got the point. Pages ago. Stop having characters expound upon it some more.
The story weaves between Mary Malone, as she explores the new world she finds herself in, with some interesting if somewhat unlikely biology. Will and Lyra go to the world of tthe dead to fufill Lyra's prmise to Roger and to apologise for betraying him. Here they find that the promised heaven is a mockery of what most expect and is instead a Limbo with no pearly gates.
Lyra's parents however continue their physical assult against the angelic forces of the Authority which provides plenty of the action backdrop required to keep the plot moving. Mrs Coulter manages to be on every single side at once during some point. It'sworth trying to keep track!
Much of the moralising obviously comes as various parties try and justify their actions and the true nature of Dust is explained. I don't know why there has been such a fuss about this book, because it's ony if the inital premise - that God has forsaken any care that he may once have had for every world - is true then the actions of fighting his agents whether or not they want to keep the wisdom from people, become worthy. It's not even an original concept, Pyrs Anthony had it, and many others before. Everybody should take the very heavily applied morals from this book - be true, love well, and care for one another.
Easy reading, some great ideas, somewhat thin characters and occasional poor writing. Enjoyable all the same.
Northern Lights.
Set in an alternative world this could be a better book than it is. few characters have nay depth to them, and
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some of the world building is bizzare without being explained. Lyra is a ward of the Master of Jorden college in Oxford University. Passively cared for by absent minded Scholars she and her daemon grew up wild and untaimed, best friends with Roger the kitchen boy and some gyptians. Lyra has the run of the college including the cellars and roof, and she manages to overhear all sorts information, little of which has any relevance until the spate of child disappearances catches up with her - her friend Roger is one taken by the mysterious Gobblers. She barely has time to get to grips with this before she meets the glamorous Mrs Coulter who whisks her away from the stuffy college. Roger however is not forgotten and Lyra emabrks on a quest beset with danger to rescue him from the North. Here she meets the fabulous armored bear Iorek Byornson and slowly learns the meaning of the mysterious Dust mentioned so long ago back in Jorden college.
At times fascinatingly written, but sometimes infuriating too. The POV switches to some minor characters in order to furnace us with some obscure background information. This is annoying and frequently unecessary. The foreshadowing that tales place on these digressions is particularly irksome.
The world is badly constructed. Set in an rigid late 1800s society it maintains some unexpected technologies from today - nuclear power for example - withotu any of the practical concerns. However the underlying background of magic and the daemons is very well done. The people are thin. Personally I don't see the controversy. The church is portrayed as a corrupt beuorocratic organisation, which it has been on many previous occasions, It could be any of many other fantasy novels which utilise the same theme. Enjoyable, but could be better.
The Subtle Knife.
Better all around really. Many of the complaints of the previosu book have been rectified, either deliberately or through happy chance. It is set in the 'real' world, so the narrative construction is better, and the foreshadowing had disappeared. There are only a couple of digressions to minor characters, and we've already met them so it is more in their continuiing stories.
Will lives in our Oxford orphaned since the disappearance of his father in an expedition to the North when he was small. His mother needs his help suffereing from Alzheimer's although no specific diagnosis is given. Following a burglery Will escapes into another world and meets Lyra. Lyra decides to aid Will on his quest to find his father, which takes the book into the first on the controversial areas.
Some of Pullman's best writing comes as he trys to expound on why there should be a war against the authority - are humans independant or submissive. Which should we be, and what are the consequences of either?
However the monologues are probably not very suitable in terms of keeping the plot moving.
I felth this was a much better bookt than the previous, but the characters are still pretty straightforward. It ends on a terrible cliffhanger with no resolution at all.
The Amber Telescope.
This concludes the story an is both the best and the worst of the books. It contains some of the best plots, with twists and turns, plenty of action, some interesting new characters and plenty of suspense. However it also contains some frightful moralising which just isn't needed. We got the point. Pages ago. Stop having characters expound upon it some more.
The story weaves between Mary Malone, as she explores the new world she finds herself in, with some interesting if somewhat unlikely biology. Will and Lyra go to the world of tthe dead to fufill Lyra's prmise to Roger and to apologise for betraying him. Here they find that the promised heaven is a mockery of what most expect and is instead a Limbo with no pearly gates.
Lyra's parents however continue their physical assult against the angelic forces of the Authority which provides plenty of the action backdrop required to keep the plot moving. Mrs Coulter manages to be on every single side at once during some point. It'sworth trying to keep track!
Much of the moralising obviously comes as various parties try and justify their actions and the true nature of Dust is explained. I don't know why there has been such a fuss about this book, because it's ony if the inital premise - that God has forsaken any care that he may once have had for every world - is true then the actions of fighting his agents whether or not they want to keep the wisdom from people, become worthy. It's not even an original concept, Pyrs Anthony had it, and many others before. Everybody should take the very heavily applied morals from this book - be true, love well, and care for one another.
Easy reading, some great ideas, somewhat thin characters and occasional poor writing. Enjoyable all the same.
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LibraryThing member circlesreads
It gives me pleasure to give these books one star, as if in some way I am getting back at them for being so awful. Even now, nine years after reading them, I cringe when I think of the bleak, depressing, horrible view this story has of the afterlife. I came away from this trilogy wishing I had
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never read it. Wishing I could expel these descriptions and images from my mind. Ugh. It's sad to think that children could read these books and, even for a moment, wonder whether the author's misguided theology could be real. Show Less
LibraryThing member acl
One of my favorite series ever, most certainly my favorite trilogy. Strong characters and themes, and a wonderful sense of atmosphere, especially in the first book. The first book is by far the best, and admittedly, the third is inferior the first two. Even so, all are absolutely worth reading.
LibraryThing member cendri
These books changed my life. I was a slightly embittered junior high kid that was having a hard time dealing with being Catholic and a weirdo. I found The Golden Compass while hiding from bullies and I skipped all my classes that day to read it (which I did read the whole thing in a day, but I mean
It's rather mature reading, and wholly deserves the Young Adult designation. It almost seems like an adult book hidden inside a child's point of view. The characters are all interesting and the ending is heart-breaking. No "they all died" like Narnia and no "they all lived happily ever after" like some other recent series. It trends the line between the mundane and the fantastical.
I'd describe it all, but I'd be doing it a disservice.
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a DAY as in I was up late into the night too). It's rather mature reading, and wholly deserves the Young Adult designation. It almost seems like an adult book hidden inside a child's point of view. The characters are all interesting and the ending is heart-breaking. No "they all died" like Narnia and no "they all lived happily ever after" like some other recent series. It trends the line between the mundane and the fantastical.
I'd describe it all, but I'd be doing it a disservice.
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LibraryThing member theageofsilt
A chilling and fantastical reworking of Milton's "Paradise Lost". Engrossing, imaginative and troubling!
LibraryThing member LibraryLou
This series blew me away. I really enjoyed it, and got swept into its world.
At times challenging, but always rewarding, it tells the story of a girl with a destiny, one she doesn't at first understand.
The issues it tackles may be too much for some young readers to understand, but it is a
I really hope they don't butcher it for the film!
At times challenging, but always rewarding, it tells the story of a girl with a destiny, one she doesn't at first understand.
The issues it tackles may be too much for some young readers to understand, but it is a
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thrilling tale, that you will find hard to walk away from.I really hope they don't butcher it for the film!
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LibraryThing member paradox98
There aren't enough stars to give this book!!!
I took a step into adulthood after I read these books. A fabulous combination of every elemnt you could ever ASK from a series. A masterpiece truly to be numbered among the classics.
I took a step into adulthood after I read these books. A fabulous combination of every elemnt you could ever ASK from a series. A masterpiece truly to be numbered among the classics.
LibraryThing member donkeytiara
the 1st book i read on a cruise to south america....couldn't put it down... the 2nd book i read on a trip to england....couldn't put it down.... the 3rd book i sat at home and read over a weekend.... fantasy writing at it's best. Read the first book soon, as the movie comes out in December 2007....
LibraryThing member AJBraithwaite
Love the idea of daemons and the portrayal of the creepy religious zealots. Didn't find the development of the relationship between Will and Lyra completely convincing.
LibraryThing member malcontentdiary
I know that this entire series is a favorite of many, many readers, but I thought this book was terrible. Full of stereotyped characters, bad pacing, and I found the universe really boring. I wish I knew what I was missing...
LibraryThing member resi
While a child may read and enjoy His Dark Materials, the book is a brill read for adults (and I believe they might profit more). Very, very good. Well written. Psychologically sound characters. Suspense. Love in all its pretty and not so pretty forms. Obsession, loss, the lot.
In comparison, Harry
In comparison, Harry
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Potter appears as just the Enid Blyton character clone he really is. Show Less
LibraryThing member pritday
First two books were great but I got bored with the third and didn't finish it.
LibraryThing member Wanderlust_Lost
Pure brilliance. I, like Tolkien, usually despise religious allegory, especially when it's a very thinly veiled attempt to promote Christianity. Philip Pullman's 3 novels, although allegorical are not out to convert you. The message is simply this: To build the kingdom of heaven on Earth because
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this life is all you get. And whether you agree with that premise or not, the message is still one of goodwill which is hard to find fault with. A powerful story of why happiness and harmony in this world are more important than the dream of rewards in the next. I didn't reailse the allegory until the last book as the first two books don't make the message apparent. This book is a statement against the church as an organisation and an invitation to return to a life lived by the golden rule in its many incarnations. The book would have been fantastic without this message as well, however, simply because it is well written and the plot is well devised and executed. Fantastic! Show Less
LibraryThing member talk0underworld
I tore through this series, crazed and waiting to find out what it all meant... only to be horribly disappointed.
The ending is probably artfully romantic or something equally literary, but that's not enough for me. It smacked of a follow-up book, quite frankly, and one has been written. Lyra's
The ending is probably artfully romantic or something equally literary, but that's not enough for me. It smacked of a follow-up book, quite frankly, and one has been written. Lyra's
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Oxford, which I refuse to read on principle. I'm sure Pullman is devastated, but he can wipe his tears with the money he'll be making from the movie. Show Less
LibraryThing member DaveFragments
A good fantasy comprised of three novels -
The Golden COmpass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. It follows the adventures of a young girl who is destined to save the universe (what else).
I think it is going to be a made into a movie.
The Golden COmpass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. It follows the adventures of a young girl who is destined to save the universe (what else).
I think it is going to be a made into a movie.
LibraryThing member neurodrew
I was led to this trilogy by a recommendation of someone reviewing Harry Potter books, as a more intellectual and deeper fantasy, although still aimed at yournger readers. I found it compulsively readable, rich in imagination and very quick in its plot, clever in its blending of ancient and modern
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science, and ultimately sad. Lyra Belicgua, eventually Lyra Silvertongue, is the main 12 year old girl protagonist, living initially in a world with an Oxford college, with "experimental theologians" as mentors. travelling between worlds and living through many adventures, only to be disappointed in love. I was very moved and thought all day about the ending of the last book, but still somewhat critical of the way some things were not explained, and clear that the cinematic features of the book were emphasized. Armored bears, witches, gyptians, daemons, angels and other fantastic creatures are commonplace. The travel between worlds is described, and relates to speculation on particle physics. The church is vilified, and the altmighty is eventually killed. I spent two nights up until 11 PM or later finishing the books, an event worthy only of Tolkien or Eco in my past. Show Less
LibraryThing member bastet
There aren't words to describe how inventive and wonderful this series of books is. As much as I loved Harry Potter, these books are far better.
And this is coming from an adult.
And this is coming from an adult.
LibraryThing member mogbane
The first book was good. The next two books caused me to start using descriptions out of the norm to try to convey just how bad they were. I've read fanfic that is better written. Pullman seems to forget entire threads of his story, then adds them in at the last hundred pages. This series of books
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would have been much better if they had ended at book one. The main character is the most unlikeable main character, that you are supposed to be sympathetic with, that I have ever seen in a book. She gets a little better towards the end, but not by much. I can devour a good book in less than a day. I fought through these three books for two months before finally finishing them. The concept is fascinating though, and with real work, they could have been good books. I really cannot recommend them, and sincerely hope that the movie is better than the books. It can't be much worse! Show Less
Subjects
Awards
The Guardian 1000 Novels Everyone Must Read (Science Fiction and Fantasy)
Newsweek's Top 100 Books: The Meta-List (84 — 2009)
Original publication date
2000 (omnibus)
1995 (Northern Lights)
1997 (The Subtle Knife)
2000 (The Amber Spyglass)