The Golden Compass

At some point I made a comment in class that I had held off reading His Dark Materials because I didn't think I would be "into" them. I had used up three lifetimes of a Fantasy Literature phase in my pre-teen and teen years on The Lord Of The Rings and by sophomore year in high school I had significantly moved into a more contemporary age of literary preference. Not only did I want to take a pretty significant break from fantasy for a while, but almost every other fantasy book that came out after my LOTR fascination seemed like a hasty attempt to cash in on Tolkien's impassable genre monolith, particularly books that were arranged as a trilogy.

I take a lot of advice about the quality of literature from my wife, who is a dedicated reader (much more dedicated than I could ever claim to be). I was intrigued to learn that His Dark Materials ranks about as high on the list of her favorite books as one could expect to attempt to rank books for as avid a reader as she is. She never really recommends books to me (being more aware than anyone of my combination of unplaceable reading preferences and unappeasable expectations) but I got the feeling that I should get into The Golden Compass at least.

It's great.

I loved Pullman's writing style. Coupled with the intricate universe that he has built, his storytelling really takes wing. Great description, wonderful vocabulary, and a pace that it easy to follow (a particularly important quality for young adult literature, I have come to find) as well as intriguing. The prose is well thought out, engaging, and free of that frustrating quality that seems to plague most children's fantasy: drawn out passages of detail that struggle to remain relevant to the book's plot, message and character development. In particular I liked how the point of view shifts omnisciently between characters--I felt like it brought the book together much better not having to be confined to Lyra's perspective for the whole book.

The only outside criticism I can find on this book--anywhere--is its very tangible rejection of organized religion. I know that when the movie adaptation came out, there were legions of religious groups that blindly instigated attacks and boycotts based on this element. Pullman has been pegged as an "atheist" by nearly all of this brand of critics, the most violent protestations stemming from the argument that, since this is a children's series, Pullman's main agenda must be to incite a rampant theological revolution in today's youth, using His Dark Materials as a vessel for his Godless doctrine.

Not only is this kind of accusation unfounded, I think that it is a terrible reason to argue whether a book should be read. I think that it is a shame that there is, somewhere, a kid who has been prevented from reading this book due to his parents' lack of individual discretion. Aside from the fact that Pullman is clearly not an atheist (because the admission of an "Authority" or otherwise spiritual overseer in his story would contradict this title) Pullman's willingness to express his opinions on the ramifications of a satirical composite of the cultural impact of organized religion does not qualify as a reason to attempt to prevent anyone from reading anything.

This story was original and engaging and I plan on reading the rest of the series. I feel as though this kind of story has never been written before, and I find that exciting.