Reading goal met

[velvetpage]

I finished Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and I liked it a lot. I thought the story held together quite well, and the characters were very real.

Some of the literary influences I detected in his work, though they weren't listed in the credits by name:

Les Jeux sont faits, Jean-Paul Sartre
Not Wanted on the Voyage, Timothy Findley
Intimations of Immortality, William Wordsworth (though his conclusions were very different, the theme is there)
Various Robert Heinlein and possibly Ursula LeGuin, for the fantasy worlds - the likelihood that he's well-read in terms of alternate-world literature is quite good, considering that's what he was creating, and those two are near/at the top of that particular sub-genre.

It was a gripping read and well worth my time. I'm glad I had the chance to read it.

Comments

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

That aspect got a bit lighter in the next books, though there was still a strong dark element to it. There's redemption at the end of the trilogy for the two villains from the first book, but it's an awful redemption.

I think you'd like it, but I'd advise reading it on a sunlit porch on a day when you're at the opposite end of your spectrum from depression. :)

[ladyperegrine.livejournal.com]

Did things ever get better for Lyra? Does she grow into a heroic person? Those were things I wanted to see. Also, I was really curious about how the alethiometer worked; I hope that part was handled well.

[velvetpage.livejournal.com]

Yes; she ends up being one of the two most heroic characters, in a cast full of them. One of my complaints with the Harry Potter books was that the people seeking to remove obstacles from Harry end up being far more heroic than he is himself. That's not the case in this series - there are plenty of people who set out to help Lyra and do it heroically, but she rises to the challenge and is a hero in her own right.

The alethiometer is explained more thoroughly later in the first book, I think, but it's used extensively in all three.