Although I feel like my first post should be about a famous classic that is really impressive (i.e. Moby Dick), it so happens that I’m not reading a famous, impressive classic right now. I’m reading His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman, a trilogy that is so far amazing and absolutely read-worthy. Here is what my edition looks like.
It was given to me by my lovely friend Jessica on my last birthday, and I’m ashamed to say that it has remained neglected and unread since then. BUT now, over six months later, I am finally reading it. I finished the first novel in the trilogy, The Golden Compass, a few days ago. It started out a bit slowly and for the first five chapters or so I was worried that it would continue that way. However, I was happily proved wrong and was soon reading huge chunks of it at a time between holiday gatherings and gift exchanges.
I should add that spoilers will be a pretty common occurrence in my posts, but whenever possible I’ll avoid giving away the big stuff.
Anyway, the main character of The Golden Compass is Lyra, a seriously fierce girl with long, awesome blond hair and a daemon. Not demon, daemon. Important distinction there. Her daemon is like an external embodiment of her soul. It can change to different animal forms according to its wishes and also necessity (i.e. turning into a wildcat to defend Lyra or becoming a mouse to hide in her pocket). Lyra’s world is both similar to and different from ours. She lives in Oxford, England but it is not the Oxford in our world. This is important, because I got pretty confused at first and couldn’t figure out whether this was present-day Earth I was dealing with or not. It’s not, even though similarities exist (mostly in countries, cities, and animal species). Lyra lives at Jordan College among Scholars, and has grown up without knowing who her parents are. She’s very mischievous and sort of wild, having never received structured, formal education or real discipline. Religion is a huge part of Lyra’s world, and I got confused about this too at first because the ruling religion is Christianity, but it’s slightly different from Western culture’s version of it. It’s a kind of hybrid of religion and magic, and science is labeled “experimental theology.”
Religion is pretty much the government in the novel, and it’s just as messy as you’d imagine it to be. The Church intrudes on all aspects of life and is a constant controlling force. Pullman’s depiction of the church in this trilogy is a source of much controversy and condemnation, but it honestly didn’t bother me much. Maybe it’s because I’m not super religious, but honestly I feel that readers are perfectly able to realize that this is fiction and make the distinction between the church in the novel and the church in real life. Also, I don’t feel that The Golden Compass had much anti-religion stuff in it at all, so I don’t understand what all the fuss is about. Possibly there’s more in the other two books, but even so I don’t much care.
Back to the plot. Lyra sneaks into a secret meeting at the College and finds out some things she shouldn’t from a mysterious, aristocratic relative of hers. She then gets drawn into a whole, huge series of events, the scope of which is quite extensive and beyond the scope of this blog to go into. I will say that it involves elementary particles, armored bears, a great chase scene, the far North, and some seriously creepy experiments that will give you chills.
I would highly recommend reading this book, whether you’re into fantasy books or not. Not only is this book super exciting and even mind-boggling at times, but Pullman also creates excellent characters (be they human, animal or daemon), a believable world that is just enough like ours to be relatable and just different enough to be incredibly engaging, and a dead interesting plot.
My one criticism would be that Pullman does use the same words a lot and often within the same paragraphs. It bugs me, but not enough to take away from the book. Some of the description is lacking, that’s all.
Now I’ll be moving on to The Subtle Knife. Please excuse my crazy hair.
Well Read 