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I didn't want to start a new thread for this because I've seen it in bits and pieces elsewhere, but I searched and couldn't find just a thread for this, so against the voices in my head telling me not to, I've started a new thread anyway.
Some small spoilers ahead
I ordered this series along with The Dark is Rising and Stardust off of Amazon two weeks ago. I cruised through Stardust, which I thought was great, and zipped through Golden Compass almost in a single sitting. But Subtle Knife really slowed me down. It feels like the new plot, with all the stuff about the true nature of Dust and other worlds and angels and so on is out of left field. It took the whole book for me to get into it, but maybe 2/3rds of the way through I finally settled in.
Now I'm maybe a 100 pages into the Amber Spyglass. It's nice to have some of the other characters back again, especially Iorek, but it's a little jolty switching around to five different plot lines at the same time.
All in all I really like it so far. It's definetely one I'll reread from time to time, but I'm curious as to what others feel about the different books. Do many of you find you reread the first book and leave the other two out? Or do you like them all?
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I love them all, but I must say the first book, whenever I read it makes me SCREAM at the end because it just makes me want more. Then it's a relief knowing I won't have to wait 423432545 years for a new book. The ending of the Amber Spyglass is just chilling, sad and beautiful. I adore those books.
But I must say book 2 has book 2 syndrome. When you have a book that is just setting up the final book.
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I liked the second book fine, the only bit that bothered me being Lyra's uncharacteristic passivity in the early part of the book.
The third book I had the most problem with -- the writing wasn't as tight, and I had problems with some of the plot points and -- well, I don't want to get into spoilers until you're done.
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The second book was probably my favourite, as I fell completely in love with the weird Mediterranean world where the ghosts ate the adults.
I don't think the third book fully stands up to the previous two, however. While I appreciate some of the philosophical points the third book makes, I also feel the philosophical stuff gets so much in the way that the actual story takes the second place.
I wonder if I'd think differently if I reread the books now that I'm older, though.
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I loved all three. While I must admit it was the slower of the three it still has some of my favourite moments.
The third is probably my favourite. I wont go into the plot but I think everyone whos read it will remember the ending for the rest of their lives. Posts: 243 | Registered: Aug 2005
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I truly only liked the first one. The second two were really just too preachy, I felt like Pullman was screaming at me and I wanted to just say "You hate organized religion, got it. Can we move on?"
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I liked the first and the second books quite a bit, but still can't figure out how the publisher tagged them as children's literature.
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I haven't read them in awhile, but I remember absolutely loving the first one. The third one has a very different feel from the first two if I am remembering it correctly.
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quote:Originally posted by plaid: I liked the second book fine, the only bit that bothered me being Lyra's uncharacteristic passivity in the early part of the book.
Probably because she was in a new world and learned that the rules are entirely different from in her own world.
quote:I liked the first and the second books quite a bit, but still can't figure out how the publisher tagged them as children's literature.
i feel that way about the Fire-Us series. It's really good but GAH! IT'S TOO DISTURBING FOR CHILDREN TO READ! It's worse in some ways than HDM.
Posts: 9942 | Registered: Mar 2003
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quote:Originally posted by Lyrhawn: Another question I wanted to ask, did anyone find it impossible to not call Metatron, Megatron?
No matter how much in my head I know it's Metatron, it pops into my head every time I read it.
I have the opposite problem. Comes from reading books about angels and the like back in college. Since I knew about Metatron long before I ever heard the name Megatron, that's what I think of.
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quote:Originally posted by Synesthesia: Originally posted by plaid: I liked the second book fine, the only bit that bothered me being Lyra's uncharacteristic passivity in the early part of the book.
Probably because she was in a new world and learned that the rules are entirely different from in her own world.
A bit of that, and probably also the shock of having just lost her friend and all at the end of the first book... but the passivity was still enough of an issue that I really felt that Pullman should've suggested at an explanation for it instead himself of leaving readers to come up with awkward explanations on their own.
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quote:I truly only liked the first one. The second two were really just too preachy, I felt like Pullman was screaming at me and I wanted to just say "You hate organized religion, got it. Can we move on?"
Yep. That sums up my experience, although I still enjoyed the second one a lot. The third one I remember as being relatively boring.
Posts: 834 | Registered: Jun 2005
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quote:Originally posted by Synesthesia: Originally posted by plaid: I liked the second book fine, the only bit that bothered me being Lyra's uncharacteristic passivity in the early part of the book.
Probably because she was in a new world and learned that the rules are entirely different from in her own world.
A bit of that, and probably also the shock of having just lost her friend and all at the end of the first book... but the passivity was still enough of an issue that I really felt that Pullman should've suggested at an explanation for it instead himself of leaving readers to come up with awkward explanations on their own.
It made sense to me because Lyra is arrogant because she's an aristocrat. She thinks she knows everything and has to learn that her real mission was taking Will to his father and not her oqn quest. Even though her own quest was pretty helpful. It made sense to me that she'd have to take a back seat and learn from Will a bit.
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I loved all three. The first was definitely my favorite, and I felt that the 3rd one, towards the end, was a bit confusing with the many different plots that you had to keep track of.
quote: The third is probably my favourite. I wont go into the plot but I think everyone whos read it will remember the ending for the rest of their lives. [Frown]
Completely agree with this. There's not a doubt in my mind that I will remember that ending forever. It's so powerful, it makes me cry just to think about it now.
But I also agree that these should NOT be kids' books. They're way too powerful with so much underlying meaning. I know for sure that I didn't understand half of what was going on the first time around. I do remember that I loved the books from the very beginning though.
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The first book is my favorite, by a mile. And anything in The Amber Spyglass dedicated to Dr. Malone was pretty slow to me.
Posts: 2 | Registered: Sep 2006
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Upon searching for this thread I did indeed find other threads on HDM, so I apologize for starting another thread (though the other threads on this are three years dead). I neglected to make the search a search of the subject line and not the content.
So I just finished reading the Amber Spyglass. I thought the series as a whole was satisfying, though I found the second two books much more cumbersome than the first, maybe overwrought is a good word for it. But I still liked them, and when I reread the series someday I'll read them all.
The ending of the Amber Spyglass was torturous.
Spoiler
When Lyra has to leave Pan at the dock in the Land of the Dead, that's maybe the closest I've ever come to crying at a book. I felt like they were ripping MY heart out of my chest. The end where Will and Lyra are separated is tragic, but while unfair, there still seems to be a cosmic balance to things.
To be honest I felt a small connection between some of what Dr. Malone was doing with the mulefa and parts of OSC's work with the people of Lusitania. But only lightly. I really felt that a lot of that storyline could have been cut, but I suppose it was there to emphasize the need to close all the windows at the end, to show the destructive power of the Dust draining from the worlds.
Anyway, I thought they were a good trilogy, not the best, but very good. I have no idea how they could possibly make the third book into a workable movie, and I think even Subtle Knife will be hard to make. The first book almost works as a standalone until you get to the last page, and then you just really want to know what happens, though I think the action sharply tapers off at that point until much later.
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