Northern Lights - Philip Pullman

Much has been made of Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy. In 2005 it was voted the Cilip Awards best ever book(s). It is a critically acclaimed series, and the focus has come to the fore again with the emergence of 'The Golden Compass', the film adaption of 'Northern Lights', the first in the trilogy. Upon starting the book, I was aware of the criticism of anti-religion Pullman has received for the trilogy. Howev er, this is a work of fiction, and this must not be read into too much. I found that, with letting go and just trusting the author, I found it an extremely good book. The theories are incredibly imaginative, as are the characters and the plot. The ...  Read the complete review

This a fascinating book, based on the principle of multiple worlds. In a world similar, but in some ways incredibly different to ours, an iresistabley irripressible child called Lyra stumbles upon an adventure she never could of imagined when she stops her uncle from being poisoned whilst sneaking around Jordan college, in Her Oxford. She gets taken to live with the wonderfull Mrs Coulter, but discovers that she is not as wonderfull as she seems, and is helping with a sinister program separating children from their "deamons" creaturs like a human spirit, but in physical form, that live with humans untill they die. With the help of her own deamon, pan, and the ...  Read the complete review

This has been on my mental TBR pile for years, but despite all the recommendations from just about everyone, I remained slightly wary as I am not a great fan of the fantasy genre. In fact, I'm not really a fan of it at all. I love Douglas Adams, but his unique brand of comic fantasy is not exactly typical of the genre, which has a tendency in my mind to try to take itself too seriously. I even failed to read 'Lord of the Rings', dropping it after a few dull chapters, and have thus far refused to consider reading any Harry Potter. Still, when I saw the first in the famous 'His Dark Materials' trilogy on the shelf at a friend's house, I knew that I had to give it a ...  Read the complete review

I'm a bit late getting to this one, it seems ~ although I could hardly have been unaware of the hype built up the His Dark Materials series, it's taken until this last week for me to get round to reading this. Despite having had this, the first of the trilogy, for about eight years, I had never given it more than a few minute's rather distracted attention. Perhaps the widespread accusations of the series serving as a thinly-disguised polemic against the Church put me off, although I should have known better than to rely on second-hand opinion. Either way, I finally resolved to crack book one open; if only to see if it was worthy of the hype. ~ Heading for the ...  Read the complete review

Lyra is a young, pre-pubescent girl, the ward of a bunch elderly scholars in the creaky world of an old university, she is a feisty, stubborn and unwieldy child, qualities that she will rely heavily on as her adventure goes on. Lyra?s uncle is Lord Asriel, an awe inspiring man who oozes authority and is used to getting his own way. (She is later to find out that he is actually her father) He is an explorer and scientist, who has close ties to the university that is Lyra?s home. After foiling a plan to poison him, Lyra learns that he is planning an expedition to the North to learn about a strange thing called ?Dust?. For the first time in her short life Lyra is ...  Read the complete review