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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
10 year old me didn't appreciate His Dark Materials enough, this goes so hard.
I can see why young people get drawn into this high action adventure trilogy. Moves the pages.
Read this due to many people raving about how great this series is, but I don't think I'm going to read the rest of it. I think I probably would have enjoyed it as a kid, but now not so much.
Can we talk about Pullman's obvious disdain towards most women? They were either vapid and vain, or dowdy intellectuals (and in both cases mostly nameless/faceless), besides Lyra (who was the exception and not like the other girls and played with all the boys etc etc) or Mrs. Coulter (who was the combination of vain and intellectual and therefore evil). You could argue that Serena Pekalla and Mrs. Costa were exceptions to this, but I would disagree - they had small parts, and only talked about themselves in relation to men. On the other hand, there was a much more interesting and diverse cast of men and boys (Iorek, Lee, John Faa, Father Coram, Roger, Master of Jordan College, and of course Lord Asriel).
I also found the obvious biblical parallels tired and boring.
It wasn't terrible though; the polar bears were fun to imagine and the battle scenes were entertaining, but that's about it. I enjoyed the scenes at the beginning in Oxford, as having visited in 2016 made them much more vivid in my imagination.
But yeah, otherwise - not super into this book.
Can we talk about Pullman's obvious disdain towards most women? They were either vapid and vain, or dowdy intellectuals (and in both cases mostly nameless/faceless), besides Lyra (who was the exception and not like the other girls and played with all the boys etc etc) or Mrs. Coulter (who was the combination of vain and intellectual and therefore evil). You could argue that Serena Pekalla and Mrs. Costa were exceptions to this, but I would disagree - they had small parts, and only talked about themselves in relation to men. On the other hand, there was a much more interesting and diverse cast of men and boys (Iorek, Lee, John Faa, Father Coram, Roger, Master of Jordan College, and of course Lord Asriel).
I also found the obvious biblical parallels tired and boring.
It wasn't terrible though; the polar bears were fun to imagine and the battle scenes were entertaining, but that's about it. I enjoyed the scenes at the beginning in Oxford, as having visited in 2016 made them much more vivid in my imagination.
But yeah, otherwise - not super into this book.
adventurous
dark
emotional
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
adventurous
emotional
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes