His Dark Materials - thoughts
I picked up the three books a little while back but hadn't got around to reading them. Just in the last day or so, I zipped through the lot in one go. Impressions -
* It's not that deep, for all its thickness of pages. Quite easily kids' books.
* The kids are tough, smart, and resourceful. They put the pro back into protagonist. Nice to see.
* Some of the magitech is pretty cool.
* I don't actually think it's anti-God, despite all the hoo-hah and limp attempts at controversy. It's mildly anti-church, sure, fairly anti-organised-religion, and more notably anti-mixing-religion-and-politics, but the Big Bad is just a bog-standard brainless Dark Lord (who is written fairly terribly, to be honest), and the actual capital-G God-standin barely even makes a dent in the narrative as he is shuffled across the page. The bad guys and meanies still get their comeuppance, including the ones who change sides. The good guys pretty much win everything with very little loss other than emotional and innocence. Even the Three Mystic Objects of the trilogy, wielded by the heroes, correspond to the Truth, the Way, and the Light. The true creator/origin of the universe is never revealed to be either natural or super-, despite all the blathering about "Ooo, this guy says he created the universe but he's a fibber". All in all, pretty ambiguous.
* The whole thing with the biological motorbike species? _So_ not needed it wasn't funny. What the hell was their literary role in the whole thing supposed to be, apart from giving the third book a bit of padding and showcasing a world that was practically tied in a knot trying to explain how such things could exist? Quadrupeds built on a 1-2-1 leg pattern I can *almost* swallow in a fantasy book. Naturally occuring wheels and naturally occurring highways, especially when so much was made of the fact that they came into being completely separately from the bio-bikes and it was apparently pure coincidence that all three existed in the same place at the same time? Was it supposed to be the author saying "Look, seriously, nothing this freakin' bizarre could have happened on its own, there must actually be a God or something hanging around, at least in that universe. And He's a biker"?
* The long, convoluted setup to get to the scene where the hero and heroine get maximum angst points. Especially as some of the elements of the setup are rushed in at the last second to explain why they can't just use their new Neato-Keen Powers to solve the Massive Angst Problem that those exact Neato-Keen Powers seem absolutely, 100% freakin' _designed_ to solve.
I can see why it got adapted for the screen, though. The imagery and designs are perfect for the big screen, and now with modern CGI it's possible to actually have a fairly good stab at recreating some of the fantasy elements.
* It's not that deep, for all its thickness of pages. Quite easily kids' books.
* The kids are tough, smart, and resourceful. They put the pro back into protagonist. Nice to see.
* Some of the magitech is pretty cool.
* I don't actually think it's anti-God, despite all the hoo-hah and limp attempts at controversy. It's mildly anti-church, sure, fairly anti-organised-religion, and more notably anti-mixing-religion-and-politics, but the Big Bad is just a bog-standard brainless Dark Lord (who is written fairly terribly, to be honest), and the actual capital-G God-standin barely even makes a dent in the narrative as he is shuffled across the page. The bad guys and meanies still get their comeuppance, including the ones who change sides. The good guys pretty much win everything with very little loss other than emotional and innocence. Even the Three Mystic Objects of the trilogy, wielded by the heroes, correspond to the Truth, the Way, and the Light. The true creator/origin of the universe is never revealed to be either natural or super-, despite all the blathering about "Ooo, this guy says he created the universe but he's a fibber". All in all, pretty ambiguous.
* The whole thing with the biological motorbike species? _So_ not needed it wasn't funny. What the hell was their literary role in the whole thing supposed to be, apart from giving the third book a bit of padding and showcasing a world that was practically tied in a knot trying to explain how such things could exist? Quadrupeds built on a 1-2-1 leg pattern I can *almost* swallow in a fantasy book. Naturally occuring wheels and naturally occurring highways, especially when so much was made of the fact that they came into being completely separately from the bio-bikes and it was apparently pure coincidence that all three existed in the same place at the same time? Was it supposed to be the author saying "Look, seriously, nothing this freakin' bizarre could have happened on its own, there must actually be a God or something hanging around, at least in that universe. And He's a biker"?
* The long, convoluted setup to get to the scene where the hero and heroine get maximum angst points. Especially as some of the elements of the setup are rushed in at the last second to explain why they can't just use their new Neato-Keen Powers to solve the Massive Angst Problem that those exact Neato-Keen Powers seem absolutely, 100% freakin' _designed_ to solve.
I can see why it got adapted for the screen, though. The imagery and designs are perfect for the big screen, and now with modern CGI it's possible to actually have a fairly good stab at recreating some of the fantasy elements.