Book: The Golden Compass
Last one for the year - just finished about an hour ago.
Title: The Golden Compass
Series: Book one in the His Dark Materials trilogy
Author: Philip Pullman
Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk
Pages: 296
Banned Books Week 2008, the 27th anniversary of BBW, was September 27 to October 4. I thought it would be fitting to choose my next book - at that time - based on their list of banned books, first looking at the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007. I only had two of the listed books and one is set aside for next year's A-Z Author Challenge (more on that later), so I went with #4 on the list, The Golden Compass, which is new to the list this year for the religious viewpoints contained. Also, I've had the omnibus of His Dark Materials sitting around since last Christmas... it's about time I sat down and read at least one of the books within, dontcha think?
Spoilers:
Chris read this one before me and brought up an interesting point that I don't know that I would have noticed on my own, though I suppose it could account for my inability to identify with any character -- Pullman gives little to no physical description for characters, with the exception of Mrs. Coulter with her long black hair. (You'd think, given that it was the only precise description for anyone, it would have been fairly significant to properly portray on film as well. There must be some kind of importance, right? Nope, they make her blonde.) Along with the lack of descriptions, I was aware of the constant back-and-forth dialogue as exposition. It's that kind of setup that usually dribbles out of my brain while I'm still siphoning the rest in. It just doesn't offer any staying power with me.
It took me exactly one month to get to page 135 and I know there was a good solid week within that month that I didn't pick the book up at all. After that I didn't pick it up again for 53 days - whether this was due to my suddenly busy schedule, lack of interest in the story, or both, I have no idea. I would think that had I been more entertained by the story I would have found time to read more, but this isn't always the case, necessarily. With that said, the second and third parts of the story were much more entertaining and I didn't have much issue getting through them in a few days.
Even though everything hinted at just this, I wasn't expecting that the Gobblers were intercising the kids from their dæmons. Having just read in the chapter before about the deep, deep bond a body has with its dæmon and how it's very much the same for a panserbjørn and his armor, I have to say it effectively stirred the right emotion when she found the severed child. Most of those emotions properly carried on to the threats of intercision at Bolvangar, as well.
Wasn't picking up on any obvious atheist themes early on (not that I was bothered by the idea of it, just keeping an eye out as I'm usually clueless to this stuff). I started to wonder if it was simply the reliance of oneself rather than a higher power or that your soul (dæmon, here) simply dies with you instead of 'moving on' to something better. Then I read the last part, Svalbard, and it's kind of hard to miss the church-is-evil exposition coming from Lord Asriel. ;)
I kept wondering while reading, 'His Dark Materials... Whose Dark Materials?' I suppose the 'him' in question is Lord Asriel, which came as a surprise to me. I was certainly shocked to find that he was even more maniacal than Mrs. Coulter. Where Mrs. Coulter plays an almost Umbridge-like character who bends the truth to get what she wants while playing up that annoying saccharine personality, Lord Asriel seems downright sociopathic. Or maybe Machiavellian, given his seeming ability to play a different role in society. And his killing Roger? Woah! Most definitely not expected!
As I've already said, I had issues with the writing which could account for its inability to hold my interest for very long, but I did enjoy the story overall and plan to read the next two eventually.
Quotes and Looked Up Words to be added some time later. Just wanting to get this part posted before the end of the year.
Happy New Year, everyone! :D
Title: The Golden Compass
Series: Book one in the His Dark Materials trilogy
Author: Philip Pullman
Genre: Fantasy, Steampunk
Pages: 296
Banned Books Week 2008, the 27th anniversary of BBW, was September 27 to October 4. I thought it would be fitting to choose my next book - at that time - based on their list of banned books, first looking at the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2007. I only had two of the listed books and one is set aside for next year's A-Z Author Challenge (more on that later), so I went with #4 on the list, The Golden Compass, which is new to the list this year for the religious viewpoints contained. Also, I've had the omnibus of His Dark Materials sitting around since last Christmas... it's about time I sat down and read at least one of the books within, dontcha think?
Spoilers:
Chris read this one before me and brought up an interesting point that I don't know that I would have noticed on my own, though I suppose it could account for my inability to identify with any character -- Pullman gives little to no physical description for characters, with the exception of Mrs. Coulter with her long black hair. (You'd think, given that it was the only precise description for anyone, it would have been fairly significant to properly portray on film as well. There must be some kind of importance, right? Nope, they make her blonde.) Along with the lack of descriptions, I was aware of the constant back-and-forth dialogue as exposition. It's that kind of setup that usually dribbles out of my brain while I'm still siphoning the rest in. It just doesn't offer any staying power with me.
It took me exactly one month to get to page 135 and I know there was a good solid week within that month that I didn't pick the book up at all. After that I didn't pick it up again for 53 days - whether this was due to my suddenly busy schedule, lack of interest in the story, or both, I have no idea. I would think that had I been more entertained by the story I would have found time to read more, but this isn't always the case, necessarily. With that said, the second and third parts of the story were much more entertaining and I didn't have much issue getting through them in a few days.
Even though everything hinted at just this, I wasn't expecting that the Gobblers were intercising the kids from their dæmons. Having just read in the chapter before about the deep, deep bond a body has with its dæmon and how it's very much the same for a panserbjørn and his armor, I have to say it effectively stirred the right emotion when she found the severed child. Most of those emotions properly carried on to the threats of intercision at Bolvangar, as well.
Wasn't picking up on any obvious atheist themes early on (not that I was bothered by the idea of it, just keeping an eye out as I'm usually clueless to this stuff). I started to wonder if it was simply the reliance of oneself rather than a higher power or that your soul (dæmon, here) simply dies with you instead of 'moving on' to something better. Then I read the last part, Svalbard, and it's kind of hard to miss the church-is-evil exposition coming from Lord Asriel. ;)
I kept wondering while reading, 'His Dark Materials... Whose Dark Materials?' I suppose the 'him' in question is Lord Asriel, which came as a surprise to me. I was certainly shocked to find that he was even more maniacal than Mrs. Coulter. Where Mrs. Coulter plays an almost Umbridge-like character who bends the truth to get what she wants while playing up that annoying saccharine personality, Lord Asriel seems downright sociopathic. Or maybe Machiavellian, given his seeming ability to play a different role in society. And his killing Roger? Woah! Most definitely not expected!
As I've already said, I had issues with the writing which could account for its inability to hold my interest for very long, but I did enjoy the story overall and plan to read the next two eventually.
Quotes and Looked Up Words to be added some time later. Just wanting to get this part posted before the end of the year.
Happy New Year, everyone! :D