Book Review: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
I decided to dive into the “His Dark Materials” trilogy after looking at them on my bookshelf for some time. This is the book series, the writing, the characters, the plot, that Harry Potter wanted to be.
I am going to keep this relatively brief, as I think the whole series (after reading this and getting about 1/3 of the way through The Subtle Knife) deserves reflection – which I will write afterwards.
This book deserves it’s own credit though. It is well written, well paced, and unique yet you can relate to it. I can see a book moving ahead with a strong plot but lesser language skills (lots of popular fiction falls into this category of great story, so-so writing) and others have the words and writing to dazzle but are really not telling much of anything. I honestly feel like this falls into that small category that has both. When books like that come along – I want to sing about them!
The levels of things going on in this are huge and many layered. The top layer of the characters and plots being one, the symbolism of the dæmons and Dust, the layer of the Church and its influence on both life and the world, and then the representations of the characters. UGH – there is lots! And yet just looking at the top layer is great, as the characters and plot soar.
Philip Pullman
The other item I want to touch on is the idea of this as a children’s book. REALLY? I am not sure I would want my 10 year old to read this. There is nothing objectionable (the church stuff is right on folks) but the layers and complexity are really quite a bit more and worth getting into.
To say I like this book would be an understatement. I wish I had not taken so long to get to it.
