Shadows or Dust or Dark Matter

Whatever it is called!

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy is extremely fantastic! I don’t mean fantastic as in brilliant. I mean exactly what the word means. It’s fantasy. It’s nothing to connect with. May be John Milton’s paradise lost has been retold I do not know. But I do feel that it was a child’s version of Lord of the Ring, with the subtle knife being the ring.

Do all fantasies have a world of the dead/land of the dead/river of the dead?

Anyway it was a neat story. It was neatly set and nicely written. It had all the characters required: Lord Asriel with all this power and pride, Mrs. Coulter with all her beauty and cunningness, Irogek the huge bear, etc. Of course not to mention the righteous Will Parry and his wise father Shaman John Parry, and I could go on.

A few things that caught my attention (apart from all the worlds described):

Mrs. Coulter needs a better name. Anyone named Mrs. Coulter can’t both be charming and cunning. She needs to choose one.

Mr. Scoresby and his description made me feel like he was LaunchPad of Tales Spin. Of course I found it difficult to imagine when he so bravely fights off the Muscovites for John Parry.

Serafina Pekkala is too hilarious a name, especially her second name.

I found it extremely hilarious for Lyra to name the harpy in the word of the dead as ‘Gracious Wings’ with such seriousness and wisdom!

I loved Pan!

Most of all I loved the mulefa and Atal, and their ingenious idea of the wheel!

I was disappointed waiting for the entire trilogy for a twist in the end that would include Will’s mother. May be she could see the Dust, which is why she seeing invisible things! Or maybe she was a witch who lost her way in our world and her daemon is confused so she gets confused and speaks to her daemon which people in our world don’t understand.

PS: Please note that I have only read The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. I have not read The Golden Compass (Northern Lights is better; doesn't sound like a thing). I do wonder though why the three books are named after a material THING, which an added adjective that tries to sound mysterious and virtuous at the same time and fails miserably at both

Also note that the two previous posts containing gibberish arise from aftermath of reading the trilogy. Now sleep eludes me and I must be off. Bust fear not for I shall return with more words from my pensive mood. And that is a promise which I shall not break!

And now you know why I laugh J