his dark materials
Oct. 12th, 2003 11:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
pauraque_bkJust finished The Golden Compass. I got this book back in June, when I saw it at Barnes & Noble on the "Books To Read While Waiting For Harry Potter 5" display. I'd heard good things about Pullman, and I was indeed Waiting For Harry Potter 5, so I bought it, and it sat on my dining room table for several weeks. Then OotP came out, and then there was all the new fic, and all the new debates, and I didn't pick up a non-HP book for... too long.
So I finally decided to try The Golden Compass, and ended up devouring it almost as fast as I did OotP. And DAMN, but this is a good book. It's incredibly absorbing, even before anything "happens"; the opening sections at Oxford are rich and detailed enough to merit a novel-length treatment all on their own, and it just gets better from there.
Pullman is extremely good at letting his child protagonist think and act like a child, but at the same time not letting her subsume the narrative voice. She's not belittled, it's just that the book is written with an adult awareness and morality. That must sound horribly stuffy, but it's not -- it's a subtle effect, and one that turns a good story into a profound one. I've chatted with some of you about the authorial misstep of not knowing more than one's characters -- not writing with perspective, in other words. Pullman has that perspective, and puts it to perfect use.
The prose is wonderfully sensory.![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
idlerat, I think you might appreciate this -- it's not written like a movie. You know how everything *feels* when you read this book. The descriptions of reading the alethiometer put me very much in mind of how it feels when you shut out your left brain in order to draw. The calm concentration and the feeling out of things rather than forcing labels on them -- that's exactly what it is. Also, was I the only one who started to feel lonely while reading this book -- because I don't have a daemon?
The book should appeal to HP fans; there are similar themes. (Though without a doubt, I enjoyed The Golden Compass far more than Philosopher's Stone.) But I'd certainly recommend it to anyone. Can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy!
Also: Asriel. Slightly Snape-ish? ;)
So I finally decided to try The Golden Compass, and ended up devouring it almost as fast as I did OotP. And DAMN, but this is a good book. It's incredibly absorbing, even before anything "happens"; the opening sections at Oxford are rich and detailed enough to merit a novel-length treatment all on their own, and it just gets better from there.
Pullman is extremely good at letting his child protagonist think and act like a child, but at the same time not letting her subsume the narrative voice. She's not belittled, it's just that the book is written with an adult awareness and morality. That must sound horribly stuffy, but it's not -- it's a subtle effect, and one that turns a good story into a profound one. I've chatted with some of you about the authorial misstep of not knowing more than one's characters -- not writing with perspective, in other words. Pullman has that perspective, and puts it to perfect use.
The prose is wonderfully sensory.
idlerat, I think you might appreciate this -- it's not written like a movie. You know how everything *feels* when you read this book. The descriptions of reading the alethiometer put me very much in mind of how it feels when you shut out your left brain in order to draw. The calm concentration and the feeling out of things rather than forcing labels on them -- that's exactly what it is. Also, was I the only one who started to feel lonely while reading this book -- because I don't have a daemon?The book should appeal to HP fans; there are similar themes. (Though without a doubt, I enjoyed The Golden Compass far more than Philosopher's Stone.) But I'd certainly recommend it to anyone. Can't wait to read the rest of the trilogy!
Also: Asriel. Slightly Snape-ish? ;)
