Forums > Social Chat > "His Dark Materials" Trilogy

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nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
Whist a search revealed a few mentions, there's been no explicit topic for these amazing books yet, so I thought I'd make one.



Basically, they're described as childrens books. I think perhaps this is because there isn't any sex, strong language or intense scenes of violence in them, and that the protagonists are children. But children's books they aint.



I recently read them all in a week, a feat only topped by my reading Lord of the Rings in 2 days. I can honestly say they stand comparison. My only criticism of them is that the first book, "Norther Lights" may be a little slow-starting for some.



I can't reccomend them highly enough. It's an amazing world, utterly incredible, with such powerful philosophical undercurrents that I nearly fell over in them wink



Please, please someone tell me you've read these and your opinion on them*. I'm sure there are some people who have, especially considering a forum member is called Lyra smile My Mum's currently reading them and she's as spellbound as I was!



Do yourself a favour and read them before the godawful film version they're currently cobbling together is inflicted upon us.. it may be produced by New Line (as LoTR was) but they're removing all references to God to please the American market. Which is censored disgraceful, and will ruin the incredible point of these desperatley underrated and underread books (and that's considering how popular they already are - they deserve more! More! MORE!!!).





*optional extra question... what would your daemon be? I think mine would be an osprey or perhaps a wolf.

[/geek]

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


Bretchenthusiast
247 posts
Location: Cork, Ireland at present


Posted:
HOw the hell did you LoTR in 2 days... I know I'm a slow reader.. and it took me about.... jeez... well, a whole lot more time then 2 days, like 2 years..... did you bother to stop to sleep/eat or drink??

I used to be indecisive, but I'm not so sure now.....


nearly_all_goneSILVER Member
Pooh-Bah
1,626 posts
Location: Southampton, United Kingdom


Posted:
biggrin The joys of doing an English and Philosophy degree, my friend. If you don't read fast you get crushed to death by books wink

What a wonderful miracle if only we could look through each other's eyes for an instant.
Thoreau


TrillianBRONZE Member
Llamas are larger than frogs.
319 posts
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio, USA


Posted:
*bump*
okay, so we saw the play in London, and while the plot was extremely condensed and not all of the acting was great, the set may be the coolest thing I've ever seen! The stage at the Royal National theater is amazing- it turns and goes up and down and all that good stuff. And they used puppets for the daemons, which took a little getting used to but turned out to be really cool. I think I probably would have enjoyed it more if I didn't have standing room only seats!

"I know a good deal more than a boiled carrot."
"Fire!" "Where?" "Nowhere, I was just illustrating the misuse of free speech."


linden rathenGOLD Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
6,942 posts
Location: London, UK


Posted:
lol the trilogy is excellent though i prefer the first book to the last two (will annoys me) and a few bits in it seem a little in consistent (the amount of time for which lyra is in the cave in a coma for one) but nm

lyra i think the idea was that they weren't split - they just stretched the bond - maybe a reference to love? but i doubt it mainly there for plot reasons i expect.

it still amazes me that the best stories (mark the word) are childrens, so many adult novels etc are either generic rubbish (as is often the case in crime thrillers - shock the butler did it) or too high brow for their own good (eg the french book written with out verbs).

good as the trilogy is i still prefer the discworld books - which if you haven't read you should go and do so now :P

back


LazyAngelGOLD Member
Carpal \'Tunnel
2,895 posts
Location: Cambridge UK


Posted:
Read the Dark Materials trilogy some time ago. It was Christmas time and I couldn't put them down! Did you know they did an audio version on Radio 4 a while ago? Liked that as it still let you use your imagination. The film will have to be really good to compare with it, and it seems a shame to miss out the relevance of God in the plot. I really loved the idea of daemons as representations of your soul: what do people think they would have? I think maybe id'd have a tiger

Because ActiveAngel sounds like a feminine deodorant

Like sex, I'm much more interesting in real life than online.

'Be the change you want to see in the world around you' - Ghandi


Dressed in BlackBRONZE Member
A Fire Inside
191 posts
Location: portsmouth and sometimes oxford, United Kingdom


Posted:
yeha ive read em too and i heard the radio version which i like. they did a stage production too, would be interesting to see how they worked that out. im not sure about the films either, il def go see them but yeah theres so much difference between a film and a book! mostly i like to read the book first or when u imagine the characters you imagine the peeps from the film.

my daemon would be a cat i reckon, or maybe a tiger if i was cool enough lol

::: I LiKe pLeAsUrE sPiKeD wItH pAiN - MuSiC iS mY aErOpLaNe :::


DominoSILVER Member
UnNatural Scientist - Currently working on a Breville-legged monkey
757 posts
Location: Bath Uni or Shrewsbury, UK


Posted:
From what I remember--

The first one was good.
The second one was fairly dull uptill about half way and then became utterly brilliant and the just ended suddenly like a slap to the face.
The third one was good too

Ok, so it's not the most original book review ever...

I've heard about this removing God from the film idea. Gah, not a good move story-wise.

I'd love to know what my daemon would be, I suppect it might be a weasel/stoat thing

Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand and I can beat the world into submission.


Dressed in BlackBRONZE Member
A Fire Inside
191 posts
Location: portsmouth and sometimes oxford, United Kingdom


Posted:
yeah its a weird idea but pretty cool...like most of the themes in the story i spose.

it wont be half as good with out the god stuff in the film but people get all funny when religion is challenged

::: I LiKe pLeAsUrE sPiKeD wItH pAiN - MuSiC iS mY aErOpLaNe :::


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