Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Yo Mamma

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

This novel is the first volume in Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy, is on its own a work of transcendent brilliance.

Northern Lights (published in America as The Golden Compass) has all the ingredients of a great fantasy novel - a child protagonist, a naïve freshness of perception, a sense that the world grownups have created is unnecessarily twisted and cruel, all of these united in a harrowing educative quest tale - but Pullman manages also to make his story a surprising and very mature exploration of the nature of power politics, cultural differences, bureaucratic ideology, and, most importantly, the nature of the Soul. When one considers that this book is probably the most exhilaratingly inventive Fantasy novel since Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Pullman's importance for the genre begins to become clear.

Great read, fresh Perspective on Fantasy litrature !

deRanged

I've read the first two in the trilogy and
really enjoyed them.
It's nice to see some new ideas in fantsy novels.

LoLth

Me dropping in to Chapters to have a peek... so they'd *better* be good or I'll Caramelise ye... hmmm, something wrong with that expression

What sort of fantasy? High magic a la Feist?, down and dirty realism like Lankhmar? or run of the mill Gemmell?

SweetBirdOfTruth

rd all three. first 2 gd, last 1 bad. liked the paradise lost thing but tend to think pullman is shooting down god cause he's an easy tgt - as kids' bks go i question the morals of it. i know that this is one of the main arguments against the bk, but i voice it as a recovering-rc, not a practicing one.

despite that caveat, i'd still recommend them as ripping yarns.

[This message has been edited by SweetBirdOfTruth (edited 19-07-2001).]

Kensai

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by Yo Mamma:
Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

This novel is the first volume in Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy, is on its own a work of transcendent brilliance.

Northern Lights (published in America as The Golden Compass) has all the ingredients of a great fantasy novel - a child protagonist, a naïve freshness of perception, a sense that the world grownups have created is unnecessarily twisted and cruel, all of these united in a harrowing educative quest tale - but Pullman manages also to make his story a surprising and very mature exploration of the nature of power politics, cultural differences, bureaucratic ideology, and, most importantly, the nature of the Soul. When one considers that this book is probably the most exhilaratingly inventive Fantasy novel since Michael Swanwick's The Iron Dragon's Daughter (1993), Pullman's importance for the genre begins to become clear.

Great read, fresh Perspective on Fantasy litrature ! </font>

Jebus, read the first one so long ago i can only remember the title

WhiteWashMan

hmm, actually for some reason this is at home at the moment.
is the second one the subtle knife? as ive had this book for about 3 years and never read it as its the second in the trilogy.
worth reading?
whats it about?

Yo Mamma

I have only read the first one in the trilogy. I have just finished reading the "Song of Ice & Fire", by George RR.Martin and this book was a nice and refreshing easy read just to clear the mind so to speak. It is kinda a kids story and I read the book in Three days, not because it was written for children but because I couldn’t put it down and am looking forward to reading the next in the series "The Subtle Knife".

If his first book is anything to go by then I'd say the second is just as good! I hope so anyway!

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Never look here !!

klong

read all three, as SweetBirdofTruth said the last was bad, as if he just wanted to finished it quickly and get his cheque. really bad ending,too feminine for what appears to be (to me) a sci-fi type series. expected more blood, gus and gore- for a massive war it certainly didn't live up to much. i've read some of his other work too and its mostly good quality stuff.

OConnor

Great Trilogy , but it had a very unsatisfying ending .....