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A review by sara_m_martins
His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
this trilogy reads as one single story, and i'm glad i got the compendium of it, even if originally it was more of a cover buy (it is a very beautiful one).
PS: there's much MUCH else to take away from this story, but i already wrote too much for GR, so i urge to at least try the golden compass, and see for yourself pullman's world & writing & ideas.
what a wonderful journey, and you could not ask for better company. all characters were wonderful partners, even when they made you despise them, even if you're weren't sure they were reliable narrators. you will ache for the large majority of them.
in the end, His Dark Materials is a story about stories. There's much else, but stories seem embedded into all of it - although how much of that is personal bias, we'll never know.
(This being an anti-thesis to Narnia is well-established, and his criticism of organized religion is clear. as is his warning about scientific responsibility - caution of the consequences of when meddling with things we don't yet really understand in the scientific process of trying to understand them...)
the first book is a classic hero's journey (NOT the Polygon Unraveled kind), where you learn truth by seeing the layers and folds of a golden instrument;
the second one rips you from the safety of the our-world-but-not-quite of the 1st, to then carry you to our world, forcing you to grapple with our issues, to then introduce you to universes created in mid-air, creating a hero's journey for Lyra's new companion, Will;
and finally, making you wonder what exactly the thing is that makes us be Human, what makes us conscious beings is the third installment . Pullman answers that question with stories as the trigger point.
Pullman's stories are our (conscious beings, that is) way of connection, of knowledge, of liberation - are those not the things that the apple of Eden symbolized? Stories must be intermingled with reality though ["I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils" (Jane Eyre)]. you must Live to find stories, but stories also lead you to Life. After all, the best stories borrow a little from life. But what would life be without stories? what would our communication be like? how would our relationships be? by what is our knowledge transmitted, if not stories?
PS: there's much MUCH else to take away from this story, but i already wrote too much for GR, so i urge to at least try the golden compass, and see for yourself pullman's world & writing & ideas.
what a wonderful journey, and you could not ask for better company. all characters were wonderful partners, even when they made you despise them, even if you're weren't sure they were reliable narrators. you will ache for the large majority of them.
in the end, His Dark Materials is a story about stories. There's much else, but stories seem embedded into all of it - although how much of that is personal bias, we'll never know.
(This being an anti-thesis to Narnia is well-established, and his criticism of organized religion is clear. as is his warning about scientific responsibility - caution of the consequences of when meddling with things we don't yet really understand in the scientific process of trying to understand them...)
the first book is a classic hero's journey (NOT the Polygon Unraveled kind), where you learn truth by seeing the layers and folds of a golden instrument;
the second one rips you from the safety of the our-world-but-not-quite of the 1st, to then carry you to our world, forcing you to grapple with our issues, to then introduce you to universes created in mid-air, creating a hero's journey for Lyra's new companion, Will;
and finally, making you wonder what exactly the thing is that makes us be Human, what makes us conscious beings is the third installment . Pullman answers that question with stories as the trigger point.
Pullman's stories are our (conscious beings, that is) way of connection, of knowledge, of liberation - are those not the things that the apple of Eden symbolized? Stories must be intermingled with reality though ["I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils" (Jane Eyre)]. you must Live to find stories, but stories also lead you to Life. After all, the best stories borrow a little from life. But what would life be without stories? what would our communication be like? how would our relationships be? by what is our knowledge transmitted, if not stories?