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4.07 AVERAGE
4.07 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Overall I really enjoyed it and definitely appreciated the full cast reading. It was A very slow start but the last third was very gripping and ends on a good cliff hanger!
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
A trilogy reread in anticipation for [b:La Belle Sauvage|34128219|La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust, #1)|Philip Pullman|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1498930382s/34128219.jpg|14190696]! (I’M SO EXCITED?!)
I was a little worried revisiting this childhood favourite, on the off chance that it hadn’t held up well — I’d heard that some people didn’t like The Chronicles of Narnia upon a reread, for example — but I’m pleased to report that it’s still lovely. Pullman has a great way with words, of painting an evocative image using just the bare basics and the most effective phrasing for the task.
The worldbuilding, especially, is fascinating: sort of steampunk, sort of dieselpunk, an alternate history that’s similar enough to our own post-Industrial Revolution London but with crucial differences, e.g. a fearsome Church that straddles the line of science (physicists are called experimental theologians!), witches, talking bears, and, of course, the dæmons: living shapechanging familiars for every single human being. The time period is interesting in that you can’t quite put your finger on the timeframe apart from the fact that it’s probably the first half of the 20th century: it feels Victorian, but I lean 1940s if only for the mention of atomic energy. I found myself drinking up every last little drop of information about this world: anbaric lights? Chthonic Railway? the British king? zeppelins!! (I bet the Empire State Building is still being used for zeppelin docking.)
But it's also the characters: Lyra, the liar, a headstrong and impulsive strong female character who seizes adventure with both hands, bursting with stubborn voice and personality. Mrs Coulter, one of the most effective literary villains of all tiiiime. Iorek Byrnison, Lee Scoresby, Serafina Pekkala, the gyptians. (I love those hints of geography in their names, too: the Finnish witches, the Nordic/Icelandic bears.)
And of course Lord Asriel, one of my earliest book crushes. As my friends and I have described him: THE DADDIEST OF LITERARY DADS. I could actually scribble screeds on his personality and relationship with Lyra, which chokes me up with emotion: his cold distance, but also his deep and fierce love for her, his gruff and stilted protection from afar, their similarities where it counts. He’s a complicated figure, an antagonist but not exactly a villain.
There are good twists too; all of which I remembered (mostly thanks to having seen the movie adaptation when it came out), but I loved seeing how they caught my buddy-reader off-guard. DAT HEARTBREAKING ENDING (I will never, ever forgive the movie for stopping a few chapters earlier)
The only thing is that the book has a bit of a slow start before the action kicks off in earnest; the first... quarter? third? is setting the stage and setting the pieces into motion, building the world while it also drops hints of children being kidnapped and the whisperings of something sinister happening to them. But I always found myself compelled to continue and devour the rest, because of this fascinating place, Lyra’s pluckiness, and the constant signs of something more lying just beyond the horizon, all of which pays off in spades.
So: 4.5 stars, rounded up.
I'm also reading the omnibus ebook version, which has little “lantern-slides” — bite-sized drabbles and little blips of imagery anchored around various characters — which are great. I’ll edit favourite quotes into the review at some point.
I was a little worried revisiting this childhood favourite, on the off chance that it hadn’t held up well — I’d heard that some people didn’t like The Chronicles of Narnia upon a reread, for example — but I’m pleased to report that it’s still lovely. Pullman has a great way with words, of painting an evocative image using just the bare basics and the most effective phrasing for the task.
The worldbuilding, especially, is fascinating: sort of steampunk, sort of dieselpunk, an alternate history that’s similar enough to our own post-Industrial Revolution London but with crucial differences, e.g. a fearsome Church that straddles the line of science (physicists are called experimental theologians!), witches, talking bears, and, of course, the dæmons: living shapechanging familiars for every single human being. The time period is interesting in that you can’t quite put your finger on the timeframe apart from the fact that it’s probably the first half of the 20th century: it feels Victorian, but I lean 1940s if only for the mention of atomic energy. I found myself drinking up every last little drop of information about this world: anbaric lights? Chthonic Railway? the British king? zeppelins!! (I bet the Empire State Building is still being used for zeppelin docking.)
But it's also the characters: Lyra, the liar, a headstrong and impulsive strong female character who seizes adventure with both hands, bursting with stubborn voice and personality. Mrs Coulter, one of the most effective literary villains of all tiiiime. Iorek Byrnison, Lee Scoresby, Serafina Pekkala, the gyptians. (I love those hints of geography in their names, too: the Finnish witches, the Nordic/Icelandic bears.)
And of course Lord Asriel, one of my earliest book crushes. As my friends and I have described him: THE DADDIEST OF LITERARY DADS. I could actually scribble screeds on his personality and relationship with Lyra, which chokes me up with emotion: his cold distance, but also his deep and fierce love for her, his gruff and stilted protection from afar, their similarities where it counts. He’s a complicated figure, an antagonist but not exactly a villain.
There are good twists too; all of which I remembered (mostly thanks to having seen the movie adaptation when it came out), but I loved seeing how they caught my buddy-reader off-guard. DAT HEARTBREAKING ENDING (I will never, ever forgive the movie for stopping a few chapters earlier)
The only thing is that the book has a bit of a slow start before the action kicks off in earnest; the first... quarter? third? is setting the stage and setting the pieces into motion, building the world while it also drops hints of children being kidnapped and the whisperings of something sinister happening to them. But I always found myself compelled to continue and devour the rest, because of this fascinating place, Lyra’s pluckiness, and the constant signs of something more lying just beyond the horizon, all of which pays off in spades.
So: 4.5 stars, rounded up.
I'm also reading the omnibus ebook version, which has little “lantern-slides” — bite-sized drabbles and little blips of imagery anchored around various characters — which are great. I’ll edit favourite quotes into the review at some point.
adventurous
relaxing
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I had been putting this book off for so long because I never read it as a kid. What I did do was see the movie when it came out and I absolutely fell in love with the movie to the point that I went to see it 3 times in theatres and for a while it became my comfort watch. I ignored the sentiment that the movie was so bad compared to the book so hard that I avoided the book itself.
Fast forward nearly 20 years and I finally get myself to do it. And holy crap I can understand why the movie was so hated by those who read the book. I think had I done it in reverse order, I would have been so dissapointed too.
But aside from the movie adaptation story, I really really enjoyed this book. Knowing what I did know from the movie, I was so glad to finally have parts of the story actually explained to me. I am even more invested in this story and where it goes next. I cannot wait to get into The Subtle Knife and see where this journey takes me.
Fast forward nearly 20 years and I finally get myself to do it. And holy crap I can understand why the movie was so hated by those who read the book. I think had I done it in reverse order, I would have been so dissapointed too.
But aside from the movie adaptation story, I really really enjoyed this book. Knowing what I did know from the movie, I was so glad to finally have parts of the story actually explained to me. I am even more invested in this story and where it goes next. I cannot wait to get into The Subtle Knife and see where this journey takes me.
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
mysterious
relaxing
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
medium-paced