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HammerOfJustice Since: Apr, 2013
08/31/2018 16:59:43 •••

You should only read the first book.

I loved, loved, loved The Golden Compass (aka The Northern Lights) when I first read it as a kid. There's an air of mystery and suspense all set against a beautiful steampunk fantasy backdrop. In this world, souls manifest outside the body as shape-shifting animals of the opposite sex, essentially acting as an audible conscience, not that they're perfectly rational. Once you reach adulthood, the daemon loses the ability to shape-shift and settles into a form matching your personality. They also cannot be too far from their owner without feeling great pain. Lyra and her daemon Pan work well as a classic comic duo on their mission to rescue their friend Roger from the GOB (known to the ragamuffins as Gobblers), a shadowy government organization that Lyra learns separates the daemon from the person permanently, causing them to become an empty shell. This first book also has talking, armored polar bears engage in gladiatorial combat for the right to the throne. The other books do not. This scene alone beats the other two books. The ending is bittersweet, with Lyra physically ascending into the stars to explore the universe, but far more uplifting and hopeful than the sequels' endings.

The sequels proceed to take this interesting premise and ruin it. Sure, we get Will and his Spectre-creating knife out of it. The Spectres are actually great villains, visible only to children but dragging anything they touch with them into the void between worlds. Then, the series becomes this sort of anti-Narnia [rather ironic, as Lewis was an atheist who was turned back to Christianity], where everything with even the slightest hint of Christianity is deemed abhorrent and evil. The angels are power-hungry maniacs that keep God (who, in this universe, is simply the oldest angel, and happens to be a senile prisoner by the time the story starts), the Catholic Church has total control over the world, and the land of the dead is essentially a big waiting room complete with Furies and grim reapers. Heaven and Hell outright exist, but we don't get to see them, really. And Pullman presents dissipating into atoms as the better alternative to immortality in Paradise. Logically, this would make Spectres the good guys, but they're still treated as villains. And then there's the scene between Lyra and Will near the end of The Amber Spyglass where it's not quite clear what's happening, but may be similar to what happened in Stephen King's IT (the infamous sewer scene, if you're unaware).

All in all, a strong beginning, a mediocre middle, and a terrible ending.

Reymma Since: Feb, 2015
08/30/2018 00:00:00

Just to clarify: the souls dissipate and lose their individuality, but the \"Dust\" that makes up all thought spreads back into the living world to be reborn in the following generations. It\'s contrasting a neopagan idea of death (souls return to the world to be reborn) with the abrahamic vision (souls are gathered by a deity outside the world). I wish it had been less one-sided, but that\'s the basis of it. Spectres are evil because they suck this Dust out of the world. I think Heaven and Hell are implied to be lies by God, everyone is sent to this concentration camp in the afterlife.

Stories don't tell us monsters exist; we knew that already. They show us that monsters can be trademarked and milked for years.
HammerOfJustice Since: Apr, 2013
08/31/2018 00:00:00

No, Hell at least definitely exists, given that Metatron or one of the angels makes reference to the rebel being sent to the Lake of Fire. Which would imply Heaven also exists.

And Pullman has outright stated the books were meant to be an atheist author tract. Quote from Wikipedia: "My books are about killing God."

Either way, I'd still recommend only reading the first book even if I agreed with his views. The quality of the writing decreases overall.

If you're going to put up a review of something, MAKE SURE IT HAS A PAGE FIRST!

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