Reviews - The Imagination Chamber: Philip Pullman's breathtaking return to the world of His Dark Materials

173 reviews for:

The Imagination Chamber: Philip Pullman's breathtaking return to the world of His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman, Philip Pullman

3.4 AVERAGE

173 reviews for:

The Imagination Chamber: Philip Pullman's breathtaking return to the world of His Dark Materials

Philip Pullman, Philip Pullman

3.4 AVERAGE

marloesdhondt's review against another edition

3.25

lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

nightshade_novels's review against another edition

2.0

informative lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: N/A

Strong character development: N/A

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: N/A

This is a very short collection from the world of His Dark Materials. Each 'scene' is only a sentence or two long. While a few of them were interesting, such as finding out what the characters got up to after the events of The Amber Spyglass, the majority didn't really add anything of value. It was clear why these were ideas that did not get explored further or make it into the final books.

This is one that I was glad I got from the library and would recommend anyone else looking to read it to find somewhere to borrow it from too.

laura_365's review against another edition

4.0

This book really shows how much Philip Pullman loves the world he’s created for Lyra. It was essentially a series of snapshots into the world of His Dark Materials, and in his foreword Pullman said he wrote most of them without intending to publish them. It was like an insight into his mind and how he creates such believable worlds, which I loved, and all of the excerpts were so evocative and well written. Page 57 was my favourite! This book probably was a money grab, especially as every left hand page was blank, but it didn’t feel like that at all when I was reading it and I really enjoyed it.

adamsw216's review against another edition

2.0

This could be generously called very brief vignettes into the world of His Dark Materials, but realistically these are just some of Pullman's unused writing prompts. Don't get me wrong, as a fan of HDM, I enjoyed reading this and even the miniscule insights that some passages provide are interesting. However, this can hardly be called a book. It is a glorified publication of some cleaned up notes that probably should have just been shared for free online somewhere, but after how many people bought Serpentine, I don't begrudge Pullman for publishing and selling this, but it does feel like a cash grab. The fact that a good chunk of these are recycled material from his previously published "lantern slides" just adds insult to injury. I can't help but feel like we're really picking through the crumbs at this point. It's honestly difficult to rate because there is just so little here.

untilthefutureends's review against another edition

2.0

lighthearted fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

anabradley's review against another edition

2.0

It's such a beautiful book, but definitely not worth buying. The passages are sometimes gorgeous but it really does feel like a stopgap before publishing the final Book of Dust.

stephen_on_a_jet_plane's review against another edition

2.0

Far too sparse, this is like watching through the deleted scenes extras on a DVD. Which can be very fun and it’s always nice to imagine what could have been, so there is joy to the book and many of the ideas are fun but there’s not enough.