I began this trilogy last year (though never blogged it then) but read the bulk of it this year, so I hope my fellow bloggers won’t mind if I blog it as my books six, seven and eight for 2008.
I wasn’t sure what I would think of Philip Pullman’s hugely popular trilogy when I began. From its reputation, I suppose I expected something between Harry Potter and Star Wars. It turned out to be a surprisingly original story, to which I had a varied response. For some of the time I was glued to the books, tearing through the pages desperate to know what would happen next. A bit later I found myself gazing out the window, wondering when the plot would ever get moving. In parts, I was impressed by the depth of the plot and characters, and in others felt it was all a bit one-dimensional. As much as I enjoyed the trilogy on the whole, these patchy areas were a let down.
For those few of you who haven’t read it (or seen the film), Pullman’s premise is that there are many universes parallel to the one we know, and that there are passages between these worlds. The task for our heroine, a young girl called Lyra, is to understand why these passages came to be and what their consequences are. Through her adventure the reader meets a wide range of fantastic characters including angels, talking bears, witches and demons (the external manifestation of one’s soul). Pullman nicely balances his more far-fetched characters with ones rooted in the familiar world of the reader, including a boy Lyra’s age and an Oxford scientist who gives some plausible-sounding explanations for the plot. Of course, I have no idea whether these ideas make any real scientific sense, but it was enough to give a bit of grounding to an otherwise wildly fantastical story.
I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised to see that the production of the film ‘The Golden Compass’ initially upset certain religious groups, since Pullman makes his thoughts on the dangers of powerful religious institutions pretty clear. No matter what the reader’s religious views, surely it is exciting to find a story in which the author has so boldly reworked and commented on religious themes in a truly imaginative way. I just hope the films don’t lose this wonderful quality in an attempt to avoid controversy.
No related posts.