"His Dark Materials" Trilogy

DarkStar

DarkStar

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I just started reading a trilogy of books by an author named Phillip Pullman called "His Dark Materials," and am currently on the second volume entitled "The Subtle Knife." Armored Bears, Dark Matter, A knife that cuts through space/time, a War on God, demon familiars, flying archer-witches, aeronautic Texans, enmounmous zepplins with gattling guns, sword-weilding angelic warriors, these books have it all.

I must say that if anyone here likes good fantasy literature they should give these puppies a try. Phillip's sensibilities skew to a much more adult audience than Rowling's "Harry Potter" series and these books are just a marvelous good read. I personally have enjoyed these books much more than Jordan's "Wheel of Time" series and at this point I think I could say that these are some of my favorite fantasy novels ever! (Lord of the Rings is still of course numero uno in my book.)

Has anyone else read these books?
 
They featured the trilogy recently here in the UK as part of this 'Big Read' campaign. Some people have been extolling the trilogy as better than LoTR. I have bought a copy, but haven't found the time to read it yet, though I hope to at some point this year.
 
I've heard about them.
Waiting for it to come out on PT so I can get a copy.


Anyway, ppl say it looks like a "Harry Potter" like thing, with a kid saving the world.
That isn't a good sign.

And ppl should read Classics, like Neuromancer or Fight Club to get real knowledge.
 
Sprafa said:
And ppl should read Classics, like Neuromancer or Fight Club to get real knowledge.
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LOL, I'm not sure whether the word Classics is applicable at this stage, but they are both great books, as is american psycho.
 
Well, Neuromancer is one. And thats confirmed.

Fight Club got very near....
 
Oh, a love Neuromancer, although I can't say that Fight Club is exactly a classic. I found the Fight Club movie to be tighter, funnier, and all around better. (Although the scene where Tyler Durden is drawing a sundial in the sand with his cock near the beginning of the book is a classic that they left out of the movie.) But seriously this "His Dark Materials" trilogy isn't just some straight forward Harry Potter-esque boy saves world story. I'm on the second book and I still don't know if the main character is on a path to save the world or destroy it! The villians are MUCH more complex as well, their motives are mysterious and most of the time it is tough to figure out who is a friend and who is an enemy.

Please, do youself a favor and read these books!
 
Th one cool thing movie did well, was playing with Tyler's job.
 
Sprafa said:
Well, Neuromancer is one. And thats confirmed.

Fight Club got very near....
Click to expand...

Neuromancer is a definite 'modern classic' but it is quaintly unbalanced because Gibson doesn't foresee mobile phones in it. I wish he would get back to writing sci fi again, I read his latest 'pattern recognition' (signed copy also :D ), and he has become so next week that he's lost the inventiveness of his vision (the female protagoniost is using a mac powerbook for most of the story.....).

I agree with DarkStar about Fightclub, the book is very good, but the film is better.
 
You got 1 thing right - Even Star Trek prediced mobile phones....
 
I still prefer Gibson to Neal Stephenson, I read Snowcrash and Cryptonomicon and was equally unimpressed by both.
 
I've read all three of them, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass and they were all excellent. The ending of the trilogy is kinda weird though..
 
His Dark Materials trilogy is for me once of the best pieces if fiction written for a long long time. A seamless amalgamation of religion , science , alternate realities and classic fanatsy elements all rolled into one.

Truly complex and well rounded characters - both villainous and heroic , and Iorek is simply a class character.

I will happily admit the ending of the trilogy gave me a lump in my throat
 
Pendragon Dark Materials was third , Lord of the Rings was in first place.
 
Yeah those books are bloody excellent, but i really must recommend the series "Memory, sorrow and thorn", that has got to be the best series ive read.
 
Ok...well....speaking of Fight Club, have you guys read any of Chuck Palahniuk's books? I think seriously one of his best books, and one of the best I've read, was Survivor. That was just one of those dark, hilarious books. One of his newest ones Lullaby, was really good too. And again, really funny. Right now I'm reading his newest book, Diary. So far its really good. Its written kinda different too. Its suppose to all be writen by this guys wife who is writing a coma diary because he tryed to kill himself and ended up in a coma. People use to always make coma diaries for people in comas so they would know what they missed once they wake up. And the wife is an artist (sort of).

Other good books off his......
Invisible Monsters
Choke
 
Hot Soup said:
Well it's on www.bbc.co.uk/bigread if i remember the url correctly ...

but yes I'm sure I work in a bookstore and that was a major promotion we ran :)
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WTF!!!!! to kill a mockingbird came in 6th.... I hated that book, i had to read it for school. In my opinion it IS the most pointles book ever created.
 
slider3005 said:
WTF!!!!! to kill a mockingbird came in 6th.... I hated that book, i had to read it for school. In my opinion it IS the most pointles book ever created.
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umm...pointless...did you actually read it :|
 
I read the trilogy last year and really enjoyed it. I thought the different worlds, characters and objects were brilliant, as was the story behind it; although I found the "Lyra's Oxford" short story to be a tad weak. I read Lord of the Rings last year as well and would have to say that His Dark Materials was superior, although as Pullman himself has said, HDM will have to stand the test of time to truly rank along side it.

As for the BBC Big Read, personally I think that 1984 should have won, Orwell was an absolute genius.
 
dæmon said:
As for the BBC Big Read, personally I think that 1984 should have won, Orwell was an absolute genius.
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I got inspired to read 1984 after watching that, and I have to say I found it surprisingly fresh in the style. It is a good book, if a little depressing, but the notion of double speak and the constant rewriting of history is quite chilling.
 
Fender357 said:
Other good books off his......
Invisible Monsters
Choke
Click to expand...

I like his work generally but I thought Choke was kinda lame.
 
slider3005 said:
WTF!!!!! to kill a mockingbird came in 6th.... I hated that book, i had to read it for school. In my opinion it IS the most pointles book ever created.
Click to expand...

Uhh...yeah. Regardless of what you thought of the story or the writing, the one thing you can't call To Kill a Mockingbird is pointless.
 
DarkStar said:
Uhh...yeah. Regardless of what you thought of the story or the writing, the one thing you can't call To Kill a Mockingbird is pointless.
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indeed, the book actually has quite a few very good points and themes, some of which are very relevant to society today.
 
Wow...I just noticed your name daemon. You must really like those books! For those of you that haven't read His Dark Materials, a daemon is an animal familiar that every human being is born with in the universe of the first book. Daemon, how do you get the "a" and "e" to connect like that when you type it? That's cool, like it is in the books.
 
I thoroughly enjoyed the Dark Materials Trilogy but agree that it's been hyped way too much. It is no way near the quality of LOTR, or many other fantasy books I can mention.

Still a great read :) (Can be enjoyed by adults ans kids will love it ........ sign of a good writer/story)
 
Kadayi Polokov said:
I got inspired to read 1984 after watching that, and I have to say I found it surprisingly fresh in the style. It is a good book, if a little depressing, but the notion of double speak and the constant rewriting of history is quite chilling.
Click to expand...

yep...1984...can't say enough about how chilling that book is. brings out the conspiracy theorist in all of us.

when you say you weren't impressed by snow crash, does that mean you didn't like it? or does that mean you're saying it doesn't compare to the best books ever. cause i agree that it's not the best ever...but it was certainly entertaining and fun to read. i guess i'm a bit biased because i had an interest in the whole babel/language/informational viruses thing before i read the book.

i haven't read anything else by neal stephenson...i've heard bad things from friends so i passed up the rest of his books for other things.

one recent trilogy any sci-fi fan absolutely has to read is the Night's Dawn trilogy by Peter Hamilton (Reality Dysfunction, Neutronium Alchemist, Naked God)
it's the best sci-fi i've read in a long time. they're all on paperback now (2 for each book)

the night's dawn universe is absolutely brilliant, imo. the author seems a bit horny sometimes, and his protagonist is basically made out to be perfect in every way, but i think it's more of an inside joke he creates with the reader than an attempt at seriousness. anyway...when i got done reading it, i wanted more immediately. and luckily there was more...a collection of short stories called "a second chance at eden". pretty damn cool.

i'll definitely check out the HDM trilogythough...sounds cool
 
DarkStar said:
I like his work generally but I thought Choke was kinda lame.
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Yeah, I did not like Choke at all. I thought the whole Jesus forskin stuff was funny though.
 
I read the Dark Materials trilogy last year... amazing. I want to read them through again, but I can't find them anywhere..
 
DarkStar said:
Wow...I just noticed your name daemon. You must really like those books! For those of you that haven't read His Dark Materials, a daemon is an animal familiar that every human being is born with in the universe of the first book. Daemon, how do you get the "a" and "e" to connect like that when you type it? That's cool, like it is in the books.
Click to expand...

Indeed I do like those books :). You can use either Character Map, or hold down the Alt key whilst typing in 0230 (on the number pad). æ :)
 
SHIPPI , your in the uk right ?

Well any major book chain will have them. Theirs two .. no three editions at the moment. A hard back containing all three books and two sets which are the same book but with different covers. Ones deemed adult and ones deemed for children ... ie ones bright and colourfull .. the other a bit more arty.


But certainly who i work for ( waterstones ) have got both sets 3 for 2 atm :)


As for mockingbird .. it is truly a great piece of work and if anybody finds it pointless .. well words defy me. It's a great shame that Harper Lee only wrote one story and even greater shame that it can be dismissed out of hand as pointless.


Currently reading the Farseer Trilogy By Robin Hobb ... would thoroughly recommend it to anybody who likes fantasy. It's reminds me more than a little of the materials trilogy in the way its superbly fleshed out and never less than gripping.
 
also iirc daemon is the old fashioned way of spelling it as well as being those superb creatures :)
 
I've heard good things about the Thomas Covenant series...

Never read these Dark Materials books though... I'll have to look them out...
 
cool..you can get the whole trilogy in paperback boxed set for like $14.99...or £14.99 from amazon.
 
Thomas Covenant series was good :)

Anyone here read any Guy Gavriel Kay? (particularly the Fionavar Tapestry and Tigana) My fave by a long shot. Stephen Lawhead rocks too \o/
 
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