Title: His Dark Materials – Book One: The Golden Compass, Book Two: The Subtle Knife, Book Three: The Amber Spyglass
Author: Philip Pullman
Year of Publication: 1995
Genre: Fantasy
Length: Each paperback book has between 335 and 465 pages.
Rating: 4.5/5 – Worth paying full price.
Review:
His Dark Materials is a trilogy that should still be as popular today as it was when it first came out in the UK, in 1995. It wasn’t until 2003 that I finally heard about the books and read them, when they were recommended to me by not just one friend, but several.
The first book, The Golden Compass, starts off with Lyra, a young girl still a year or two away from adolescence who lives in – and terrorizes – Jordan Campus. At the start, she made me think of a wild pirate girl, barely allowing herself to be tamed by the adults who tried to keep her under control. While she does live in Oxford, it’s back in time, and in another dimension. In this dimension, all humans have familiars called daemons that are with them for life. This daemon, while able to walk around, talk, and in some cases fly short distances from their human, are attached emotionally to them for life. If they wander too far away from each other – and it mentions that children and their daemons usually test this at least once – then both of them will feel a great deal of emotional pain and sadness. Also, when the human is a child, the daemon has not taken on it’s full form yet and can change at will. When we first see Lyra’s daemon, Pantalaimon, he’s a moth. Later, we see him as a fly, a dolphin (Lyra spends a large amount of time in a boat during the journey), a sparrow, and others.
The form that the daemon ends up being in is a reflection of the true nature of the human, so often a human will expect – or rather hope – for their daemon to choose something like a tiger, or a bear, or an eagle or boa constrictor, and then they could end up with a frog or a budgie instead.
Lyra is on a journey to find her father, among other things. Her parents are both very important people in her world, though she’s really more of an orphan than anything; neither of her parental figures do much in the way of parenting.
The other main character is Will, whose story we start to follow in The Subtle Knife, book two. Will is also from Oxford, but his is an alternate world that more closely resembles our own. There are no visible daemons here, and the only major difference lies in the scientific community, and the discovery of a substance known as Dust. His father has been gone for a very long time, and his mother is mentally unstable, leaving Will to be the one in charge while still only being a child himself, the same age as Lyra. He manages to end up in another dimension while on a journey to find what happened to his father, and meets Lyra.
The third book is a journey through many worlds, using the tools that the characters have found; the golden compass, the subtle knife, and the amber spyglass. Each is a one-of-a-kind item, and there are many times when one of the items falls into the wrong hands.
While the story is excellent and the books addictive, taking the reader through many worlds and showing Will and Lyra as they learn more about each other and grow up, the ending is a little abrupt and sudden. Everything collides, creating an unexpected, emotional ending.
Recommended for all fantasy and adventure fans, this is a great read, something no one should miss.
I agree- these are great books! I think the 2nd one drags a bit, but the 1st and 3rd more than make up for it.
In related news, this is being made into a movie. Daniel Craig plays Lyra’s father. Nicole Kidman plays her mother. I’m not sure when it will be out, but I’d guess next Spring.
The third book seems to lose focus, the tone of the book changes drastically, namely that the religious aspects seems to practically bludgeon the reader. To me, those themese were alluded to in the first two books, and then become the focus fo the novel, to its detriment. Moreover, the climax between the two main characters is a bit disturbing if you look at it from certain angles.
That being said, I still thoroughly enjoyed the whole series. And Daniel Craig is great casting.
Tami: I didn’t know that. I love Nicole Kidman, she’ll probably be great in that role. I wonder how the daemons are going to be done, though. Probably in CG, and then they’ll just look like comic relief. Better than being done as puppets, at least.
TheMainEvent: I didn’t like the religious tone at the end, either.