Great start, wobbly middle, weak finish | His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife;...

An epic fantasy book for young adults and those with imagination! | His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) | Philip Pullman

books:


	• His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass) Philip Pullman Knopf Books for Young Readers, 2007 - 1312 pages average customer review:based on 1120 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

One of the best sets of books you will ever read.

I reserve a special place on my bookshelf for this trilogy; Pullman knows how to write good characters, and by the end of the book you'll feel like you just spent time with good friends. If you're reading this book for the religious aspect, please don't. Read this book for the story, the characters, and the morals. Pullman's epic story is an amazing way to spend a week.

Great start, wobbly middle, weak finish

The Golden Compass was very enjoyable with great characters, good and evil, and an immensely interesting story. The parallel world is well imagined and believable; and if the protagonist, Lyra, is a bit of brat with an unearned super-ability and remarkable aplomb for an 11-year-old, her story is so well written that you can suspend your disbelief if it occurs. The cliff-hanger ending which turns Lyra's mission on its head is the perfect lead-in for the second act. Too bad that it doesn't follow through with the initial promise.
The Silver Knife immediately started to water down the original brilliance and slides rapidly into a splintered morass in the third book, The Amber Spyglass. The new characters introduced to the plot are not as interesting as the originals. Such as Will, another child with amazing abilities. He also gets an object which enables him to quickly assume hero status, like Lyra, which stretches credulity, especially as he is rather dull in his awesomeness, unlike Lyra. But Lyra's fire begins to leech away, once she joins forces with Will, and she becomes as colorless as the universe ends up by the third book.
Formerly evil characters begin to reveal an unsuspected sweet side and by the end commit such a selfless act (and wrapped up in such cliched tripe, especially considering how the characters were initially drawn, that I gagged over the dialogue) that I actually felt the characters had been betrayed by their author.
Mary, the supposed all-important catalyst, simply tells a story near the end of Spyglass that somehow leads Lyra and Will to the near-instantaneous saving of the universe (and Dust?). The method of that saving is just . . . poorly thought out, nonsensical, and utterly wastes the promise shown in The Golden Compass.
All the effort and heroics lead to a bleak universe and nobody ends happily. And for no real good reason except the author said so, even if it contradicts what has been outlined in the previous books.
Collectively, the trilogy would get 3 1/2 starts. Read the first book, then resist the urge, no matter how powerful, to finish the series. You'll likely be disappointed, as I was.

for more information click here

An epic fantasy book for young adults and those with imagination!

A lot has been said about this trilogy, a collection of these stories: The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.

It's all true. The adventures. The religion-bashing. Parallel universes. The stimulation of the imagination.

You will find yourself pausing, and just thinking about the story you've just read.

This particular volume is an economical collection of the entire tale. It's a thick book for carrying around (almost 1000 pages), and the soft-bound edition probably will not take a lot of abuse in backpacks. Nevertheless, it will be a classic in the young adult fantasy genre.

At one time, Lyra and Will are in a conversation with a scientist, Mary, who finds a way to communicate with Shadows. Will asks her if she believed the Shadows really were angels, as they claimed.

"'Ah, but I knew about them. I used to be a nun, you see. I thought physics could be done to the glory of God, till I saw that there wasn't any God at all and that physics was more interesting anyway. The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all'" (p. 871).

And will this book make atheists of all the children who read it? It hasn't so far.

for more information click here

Packed Trilogy & Its Message of Freedom & Deliverance.

I got the three volume paperback set in a simple slipcase with The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. After you have read the books, you will see just how silly the critics are regarding Pullman's so-called attack against religion. This three volume set explores the adventures of Lyra and Will as she attempts to thwart her uncle, Lord Asrael's vision of a world without a Heaven. But not the heaven as we know it, but of a heaven that is run by a bad guy. But I digress.

Briefly:

**
The Golden Compass introduces us to Lyra, the girl who is a bit of a brat, who lives in a pampered existence with her uncle. She overhears rumors of Dust and an experiment in the Arctic. Soon, her playmates start disappearing! Mrs. Coulter takes Lyra under her wing, but she is much more than she seems. The book is much better than the movie, Golden Compass, so don't confuse the two!

**
The Subtle Knife: Great characterization in Lyra, the little girl lost, who meets a boy and a gang in a very unlikely dimensional hole in search of her uncle and discovering more about Dust and what it has to do with life.

The Subtle Knife is an instrument that can cut between dimensions. However, there has been a lot of "cutting" in the last century or two and this is having a destabilizing influence on the worlds affected.

I like Lyra in these stories. Phillip Pullman has been criticized for his apparent anti-Church themes, but I'm inclined to believe that those who accuse him of that have not read the book and are only reading the criticisms.

Pullman paints a dark Church in a dimension similar to ours, that's true. They are attempting to suppress the knowledge of other dimensions and those who can survive without daemons (animal familiars). Mrs. Coulter, unlike the first book, Golden Compass, plays a bit of a last minute heroine.

Overall, entertaining, moves at a good pace.

**
The Amber Spyglass: Will and Lyra continue their journey into the unknown. This book was fun because we have a spyglass that can spot Dust, we have the return of the Bear clan with kind Byrnison and we have Lyra's uncle on a quest to conquer God with his minions of angels and other armies.

At the risk of a spoiler, Lyra discovers a place where ghosts dwell, where a purgatory of sorts is, the draining of the spirit. And she finds love and that she's older and wiser because of it.

The subplots and the complexity of the story is what makes it fun.

**Check it out!

for more information click here

it was a great surprise

I have to admit that i was a bit relentles with buying by internet, and internationally, that's why i only bought the Dark Materials Trilogy, "just in case", but i was surprised not only because it arrived in great conditions, but also because arrived earlier than expected (it was supposed to arrived on december 9th, and it came on november 20 something). thanks Amazon for the books, it came before my birthday, and cheaper than i would've bought it here in Chile.
ps:sorry for my misspelling, but my english has got a bit rusty with the years

FOR THE FIRST time, the hardcover editions of Philip Pullman's awardwinning His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass) with the original, classic covers by Eric Rohmann, will be available in a boxed set.

for more information click here