Yeah, I finally got around to reading the His Dark Materials trilogy in its entirety because I figured I might appreciate it as an atheist or something magical like that -- and I had to force myself to finish the damn thing. I kept hoping it would get better, but after the first book, it just . . . falls apart.
Lmao, I actually didn't mind that bit so much, but the books were recommended to me multiple times on the basis of "OMG SO ~SYMBOLIC~" and they're so heavy-handed and lacking in subtlety that it put me off a lot. I liked the plot once I got over how blatant it was, but the way Pullman handled it was . . . boring. Also the way Lyra's character seemed to lose badassery as soon as ~Will~ popped onto the scene was jarring, and the cis- and heteronormativity of it all was kinda meh.
Not to say that it's all written poorly -- he handled perilous/fight scenes nicely and the whole thing with Lyra and Pan almost getting severed in Bolvangar was pretty intense -- but there wasn't enough awesome to carry the whole series, and the prose lacked. The second book especially was bad.
IA about it being heavy-handed. I mean, for crying out loud, they kill God. It was like, thank you, Mr. Pullman, would you like to put that in neon next time?
Edit: LOL. I just realized that I used a phrase with a religious reference to talk about atheism. *headdesk*
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Not to say that it's all written poorly -- he handled perilous/fight scenes nicely and the whole thing with Lyra and Pan almost getting severed in Bolvangar was pretty intense -- but there wasn't enough awesome to carry the whole series, and the prose lacked. The second book especially was bad.
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