Archive for January 21, 2008

I'm not making very good time I'm afraid. I just finished my first book in the 50 in 365 challenge this morning. As I mentioned earlier, I read The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman and I ended up enjoying it quite a bit.

While it's true it was aimed towards younger readers, there's also a lot of subtext which adults will appreciate too, especially the religious aspects of the story. One of the most interesting things I found in the book was the exploration of the role of the church in the lives of the people in the world that the book is set in. One of the things the author does well is set up a world which is believable by basing it upon our own universe, but giving everything a twist. I also enjoyed the fact that the author never takes the time to explain
the mechanics of the world, preventing the sometimes awkward
conversations between characters explaining things which the
participants should already know. This leaves the reader to work out
the details, using what they know of the real world and the clues they are given inside the structure of the main story. If something is necessary to understand, then it is explained cleanly in the context of the story by an adult speaking to the young main character.

The way the characters were structured also made the book interesting to me. I'm not one for long periods of description or actions with no dialog. I really need dialog between characters to anchor me to the story. And because the main character in this book is actually 2 characters (Lyra and her daemon, Pan), even when they are alone there is still an opportunity for conversation.

This first book comes highly recommended to anybody who enjoys books based in a light fantasy world with an interesting narrative.

I'm now starting on on the second book in the trilogy, The Subtle Knife, but I'll make a full post on that book a little later on.