Review

Apparently I’ve been out of the loop, as I was completely unaware of Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy until I saw the trailer for the first book’s film adaptation, “The Golden Compass.” Needless to say, after just a whiff of all the fantasy and spectacle in the movie, I was googling like a madman, and after perusing just a few reviews and messageboards, was entering my credit card info at Amazon for the whole kit and caboodle. I’m now one book in, and can happily report that it lives up to much of the hype.

It did take me awhile to get going, as the first third of the book is rife with unfamiliar terminology and loaded with typical Act I info: WHO are these people, WHERE do they live, HOW does their world work, WHY should I care? While it takes a little patience to navigate these waters, it all more than pays off as the real adventure begins. Had Pullman not taken the time to establish this world and the relationships within it, the power of later events would have been lost on the reader. Which brings me to the good stuff…

I’d read that this was somehow Pullman’s rebuttal to C.S. Lewis’ Narnia series — a children’s fantasy with an atheistic bent, devoid of the spirituality so evident in “The Chronicles of Narnia.” I guess I can see how some might read that into it, as Pullman has openly denounced the Narnia books as religious propaganda, but it didn’t sit that way AT ALL with me. If “The Golden Compass” is filled with anything, it’s spiritual metaphor. Not only does it ooze with these larger, ethereal themes, it places them firmly within (and often against) a culture steeped in Church dogma. In this regard, I found the first tome in the trilogy an even more insightful look into spirituality than the Narnia series. Where Lewis spent his stories examining the ideas of spirituality, Pullman has focused on how spirituality fits in to the world in which we live. A criticism of the Church? Perhaps. But I don’t think Lewis would have argued that the Church is unblemished. I know I wouldn’t.

What’s amazing (and maybe unapparent given this review) is that all these grand ideas and themes are wonderfully hidden inside a truly great adventure story. “The Golden Compass” might be a little heavy for some young children, as it deals quite graphically with some very adult themes, but kids and adults alike will enjoy this yarn both for its originality AND the way it seeps into our deeper conscience with its uncanny insights into the mystical. If the first 90 pages had clipped along a little quicker, I’d likely give it a 9/10. Check it out!