Yay! First post! I'm really excited about this book blog idea because...well...let's be honest. I love reading! I recently read The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman. Or in other words, the His Dark Materials trilogy. I was excited to read The Golden Compass because I'd heard good things about it, it's in my favorite genre (YA or Children's Lit with lots of adventure and in a cool fantasy world) and it's being made into a movie that has a really cool looking trailer. That said, I felt that The Golden Compass really delivered for me. It was exciting, intense and marvellously written. Now if only it could stand on its own. It ends (predictably) at quite a cliff-hanger and you feel like you won't breathe again until you have the second book in your hands. Unfortunately, and in my humble opinion, the other two books are trash.
Now, when I say trash, I don't really mean that they are poorly written. Pullman is still a fantastic writer, but the unfortunate truth is that Philip Pullman is a very decided atheist and has taken upon himself the task of being a missionary for his beliefs (or lack thereof) in the second and third books of this series. Without giving too much away (and believe me, these objectives are clearly outlined in the beginning of book two) the culminating purpose of this series is to kill God. (Is that too big of a spoiler Bont? I hope not. It really is all they talk about in the second and third books. Sorry if I broke the rules, I thought it was a worthy cause.)
Along the way you will be littered with all sorts of trash about the wickedness inherent in religion of all sorts. I wish I hadn't read them, to tell the painful truth. I was driven to finish by curiosity about the characters (whom I had come to care for after book one) and by the impelling action in the books. It's just too bad, really. It didn't bother me too much, since the God being described in the book (you know, the enemy) is nothing like the true God that I, thankfully, have a solid knowledge of. Maybe I should send Pullman a Book of Mormon. :D Maybe after he converts he'll rewrite the series! Then it might just be one of my favorite works of all time!
So, the conclusion is this: I will not own these books. Despite the moving emotions and great characters, they are full of baggage I don't think my kids should have to deal with when they are old enough to read. There's enough garbage in this world already. If you read The Golden Compass, do yourself a favor. Imagine a new ending and don't read the other two books!!!
4 comments:
I don't think you broke the rules at all. More important to me than not having an ending spoiled is knowing what I am up against if there is questionable material in a book. I'm glad you said what you did because I'm convinced to avoid the books, (especially the second and third ones, but if the first is such a cliffhanger, I don't want to read it either if I am not going to continue.) So I really appreciate this post letting us know what we need to know. That's really sad that he would write books like that. I feel sorry for that man.
Although I completely understand why you didn't like the second and third of this trilogy I'll have to disagree that it's not worth it. I seriously just worked it out in my mind that the "church" or "religion" he was talking about was the Catholic church, and that the "God" of this story was in reality the devil trumping himself up. Because although you can tell Pullman doesn't believe in the existence of a God he does believe in an interconnectedness that I think is very religious in nature. I enjoyed thinking of how this worked out with my beliefs. And believe me somehow I came out of the series uplifted.
I'm glad you posted that comment Emily (do I know you?). You're very persuasive. I have to agree with you that he seemed to generally be focusing his negative energy on the Catholic church. Still, there were more than a few comments that he made that got under my skin. Not to mention one other part that just bothered me to no end. I'd be happy to talk to you about it sometime. I also have to agree that there were uplifting parts (I was completely moved to tears by the end!!! It was so sad!) The main reason I made my review so negative was because after finishing the series and examining it as a whole I decided that it wasn't something I really wanted my kids reading until they're older. More specifically, old enough to think for themselves and make their own educated decisions. You're right, though, it's really not as cut and dry as I made it out to be. It's nice to hear from someone else who's read these!
You do know me. I'm Emily Lund. Sometimes known as Niels little sister, but we met at Snow. (On a side note I wouldn't want my kids reading it until they were older too.)
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