Nevertheless, she smiled.

[exsequar]

*sniffles quietly*

I just finished the last book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, for what must be the fifth or sixth time. And once again, I was swept away, uplifted, dashed to pieces, and then oh so tenderly put back together. This story is exquisite, epic, daring, unique, wonderful.... I haven't the words to do it justice. If you've read it, I hope you know what I mean; if you haven't, you should.

I'm a little bit apprehensive of this becoming a trilogy of movies. The first one will be exciting and fun, but the second and more so the third get into such subtle and achingly beautiful themes of loyalty and love and goodness and right and wrong and truth that I can scarcely imagine them in a loud, flashy Hollywood movie. This story grabs my heart and tugs like nothing else (I am in floods every time; this time was absolutely no different) and it's hard to imagine that depth translating to screen. Especially since it rests on the shoulders of two 13 year old children to convey that depth, that power... I don't know. I want them to be amazing, but I have my doubts. Especially if, as rumored, they're taking the religious aspect out of the movies... because that is so fundamental to the books, but in a way that turns traditional religion on its head and questions every assumption it makes. That's why they're taking it out, because wouldn't want to ever offend anybody, oh no! *scoffs* So yeah. I'm holding back on judging prematurely, but I am worried.

Um. I didn't mean to take this post to bitch and doubt. I just needed to say something. Finishing this book is always so... profound.

*ponders quietly*

Comments

[candidlily.livejournal.com]

Sounds like a worthwhile read... but what's it about?

[exsequar.livejournal.com]

Oh gosh, what ISN'T it about? And that's a serious question. It's such an all-encompassing book, about human nature and greater powers and everything fundamental to our lives.

But at its root, it's the story of a young girl, Lyra Belacqua, who has been raised at a college full of male scholars who have no idea what to do with this spitfire child. Her uncle, Lord Asriel, is a great explorer of the Arctic, and while hiding in a closet during a presentation he gives at the college, she finds out about a mysterious concept called Dust. Later, a beautiful woman, Marisa Coulter, comes to take Lyra into her care, and so Lyra is taken into the outer world. But she eventually runs away, and she gets swept away on a grand adventure into the North, making many and sundry friends along the way - gyptians, a Texan aeronaut, witches, armored bears. Her goal is to rescue her friend Roger, who was kidnapped by a mysterious group of people called the Gobblers and taken to the icy reaches of the North.

The coolest thing about the first book, I find, is that the world Lyra lives in is a lot like ours... but tilted at an angle. She lives in Oxford, England, but a lot of other names are slightly different (there's Corea, and Svedan, and the Muscovites) and she uses the word "anbaric" instead of "electric," "chocolate" instead of "chocolatl," and it's wonderfully fascinating to catch all the little differences between her world and ours.

Hee, so I guess that's my advertising pitch - for the first book! But like I said above, I regard the first book almost completely separate from the other two - the story spreads out and becomes much more epic and thematic in the second and third. Just trust me - read these books. You won't regret it!

[candidlily.livejournal.com]

I'll add it to the books-to-buy list! :D