Book 101 - Philip Pullman "Northern Lights"
Philip Pullman "Northern Lights" (Scholastic)
I started reading this book a good while back after seeing the film version, The Golden Compass, and well before the recent BBC TV series. Since I have been watching the TV series I was intrigued to see how well the TV adaptation follows the book. There are some minor differences such as introducing Will much earlier on in the television version, but not enough to distract from the book.
This story takes place in a world parallel to our own. Lyra's amazing spirit makes her the heroine to save children from being experimented on. The young adventurist travels across insurmountable odds with her daemon,(the manifestation of souls in animal form) and defeats evil forces at every turn. This mythic journey has mystic guides and animals who are able to communicate with humans.
I’m intrigued, but I’ll need to withhold comment on the larger meaning until I’ve read the whole thing= the second and third in the series. Lyra must fight some great battle without knowing she’s doing it, with the help of her alethiometer, a device that looks a bit like a golden compass. My understanding is that the later books will become quite vociferously anti-organized religion, but this book certainly shows it in a bad light which endorses my opinion about organised religion. The Church , the Magisterium, stifles valid research that challenges its teaching, while at the same time permitting the atrocities of severing children
's daemons. It’s definitely a sophisticated story that whilst aimed at children or teenagers can be read quite easily by adults. I was quite surprised to see one character say "The wave function of this situation is going to collapse quite soon" which children may not understand unless they have heard of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle fro quantum mechanics! A very good read and I look forward to devouring the next book, The Subtle Knife.
http://jazzy-dave.dreamwidth.org/
I started reading this book a good while back after seeing the film version, The Golden Compass, and well before the recent BBC TV series. Since I have been watching the TV series I was intrigued to see how well the TV adaptation follows the book. There are some minor differences such as introducing Will much earlier on in the television version, but not enough to distract from the book.
This story takes place in a world parallel to our own. Lyra's amazing spirit makes her the heroine to save children from being experimented on. The young adventurist travels across insurmountable odds with her daemon,(the manifestation of souls in animal form) and defeats evil forces at every turn. This mythic journey has mystic guides and animals who are able to communicate with humans.
I’m intrigued, but I’ll need to withhold comment on the larger meaning until I’ve read the whole thing= the second and third in the series. Lyra must fight some great battle without knowing she’s doing it, with the help of her alethiometer, a device that looks a bit like a golden compass. My understanding is that the later books will become quite vociferously anti-organized religion, but this book certainly shows it in a bad light which endorses my opinion about organised religion. The Church , the Magisterium, stifles valid research that challenges its teaching, while at the same time permitting the atrocities of severing children
's daemons. It’s definitely a sophisticated story that whilst aimed at children or teenagers can be read quite easily by adults. I was quite surprised to see one character say "The wave function of this situation is going to collapse quite soon" which children may not understand unless they have heard of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle fro quantum mechanics! A very good read and I look forward to devouring the next book, The Subtle Knife.
http://jazzy-dave.dreamwidth.org/