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Books : Northern Lights (His Dark Materials)
1 2 3 4
Rating: 
- Not so good
I found this book rather disappointing and am quite baffled as to the reasons for its immense popularity. The characterisation is weak, the dialogue irritating, the alternate world is ours, basically, with a few arbitrary tweaks, and things with slightly different names(e.g. gypsies are "gyptians", Norway is "Norroway", or something). I only became interested in the last 50-60 pages as the allegorical element of the story became clear, somewhat along the lines of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books. But the few interesting ideas towards the end are not enough to justify this poorly-written and none-too-imaginative book, and I won't be reading the sequels.
That said, I tend not to like flavour of the month-type books, and sometimes I suspect that I only read them to pooh-pooh them, as it were. Certainly, many others appear to have derived great pleasure from this book and who am I to argue with the opinion of the great masses? It surprises me that children enjoy this book as it is quite wordy, dry, utterly humourless and lacking in vivid description, but apparently they do, so I'll say no more about it.
Rating:
- Northern Delights
This book is just superb. The fantasy and science are beautifully interlinked, while the setting is made familiar by the use of towns, countries and landscapes that we live in but are coupled with altogether otherworldly ideas such as daemons and polar bears in armour. This is no fantasy schlock and far better thought out and believable (you know what I mean) than Harry Potter that I found altogether more predicatble. This is one for the adults and kids to savour.
Rating: - Dazzling colours...
A young and independent girl called Lyra is forced into adventure when her close friend is kidnapped. As the story unfolds, the reader is drawn into this parallel universe of mysterious creatures and soul daemons, tracking the progress of typical Pullman anti-heroes. Through drawing upon aspects of the real world (the gypsy culture that live on barges, for instance, were based on the travellers of Oxford's Jericho canal), Northern Lights is heavily doused in the politics of Christianity and authority figures of the real world.
Suitable for later KS2 Years (certainly 5 and 6, and possibly able Year 4 readers). His Dark Materials trilogy is a great opportunity to increase the interest of reading for enjoyment, and has opportunity for cross-curricular studies in RE. Similar to the Harry Potter phenomenon, His Dark Materials Trilogy could be also used to spark interest in history, mythology and geography, fuelled by the existing passion that many children already hold for these novels or film adaptations. The book could also be used in terms of self-esteem, where children could have activities such as drawing and creating their own daemon is order to project their personality and, in some cases, give the child a visual means of harnessing inner strength and confidence.
Rating: - One of the all-time greats
I truly believe that in years to come, this will be regarded as one of the great children's classics, right up at the top with Alice in Wonderland.
Rating:
- Not really for grown-ups
His Dark Materials is being touted as being 'for all ages', having made my way through 'Northern Lights' this 40 something has to disagree. My 10 year old daughter loved it, and I'm sure it is a good read for that age group.
However, I found myself slightly bored and irritated with it. Northern Lights is just too simplistic to stand up as a novel for grown-ups. The basic problem is that the world Lyra lives in never fully comes to life. We only get told what is needed for the plot, there isn't enough background detail to turn a sketch into something more substantial. Similarly the supporting characters are one dimensional archetypes rather than fully developed individuals.
All of which leaves a lot to be delivered by Lyra and the plot. I didn't really believe in Lyra - everything comes just a little to easily to her, and her tendency to drop into a mockney accent for no apparent reason didn't help.
The plot starts intriguingly but after a slightly dull middle turns into a series of grandstand action events, perhaps to take the readers mind off the lack of coherence in the story. Finally we get a series of lengthy and dull expositions from Lord Asriel & Mrs Coulter to try and make some sense of what has gone before. To be fair the ending does have sufficient `hook' to make we slightly curious about what happens next, but I won't be rushing to find out.
All in all judged as an adult book this is distinctly average steampunk/fantasy not worthy of the plaudits it has received.
- Not so goodI found this book rather disappointing and am quite baffled as to the reasons for its immense popularity. The characterisation is weak, the dialogue irritating, the alternate world is ours, basically, with a few arbitrary tweaks, and things with slightly different names(e.g. gypsies are "gyptians", Norway is "Norroway", or something). I only became interested in the last 50-60 pages as the allegorical element of the story became clear, somewhat along the lines of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books. But the few interesting ideas towards the end are not enough to justify this poorly-written and none-too-imaginative book, and I won't be reading the sequels.
That said, I tend not to like flavour of the month-type books, and sometimes I suspect that I only read them to pooh-pooh them, as it were. Certainly, many others appear to have derived great pleasure from this book and who am I to argue with the opinion of the great masses? It surprises me that children enjoy this book as it is quite wordy, dry, utterly humourless and lacking in vivid description, but apparently they do, so I'll say no more about it.
Rating:
- Northern DelightsThis book is just superb. The fantasy and science are beautifully interlinked, while the setting is made familiar by the use of towns, countries and landscapes that we live in but are coupled with altogether otherworldly ideas such as daemons and polar bears in armour. This is no fantasy schlock and far better thought out and believable (you know what I mean) than Harry Potter that I found altogether more predicatble. This is one for the adults and kids to savour.
Rating:
- Dazzling colours...A young and independent girl called Lyra is forced into adventure when her close friend is kidnapped. As the story unfolds, the reader is drawn into this parallel universe of mysterious creatures and soul daemons, tracking the progress of typical Pullman anti-heroes. Through drawing upon aspects of the real world (the gypsy culture that live on barges, for instance, were based on the travellers of Oxford's Jericho canal), Northern Lights is heavily doused in the politics of Christianity and authority figures of the real world.
Suitable for later KS2 Years (certainly 5 and 6, and possibly able Year 4 readers). His Dark Materials trilogy is a great opportunity to increase the interest of reading for enjoyment, and has opportunity for cross-curricular studies in RE. Similar to the Harry Potter phenomenon, His Dark Materials Trilogy could be also used to spark interest in history, mythology and geography, fuelled by the existing passion that many children already hold for these novels or film adaptations. The book could also be used in terms of self-esteem, where children could have activities such as drawing and creating their own daemon is order to project their personality and, in some cases, give the child a visual means of harnessing inner strength and confidence.
Rating:
- One of the all-time greatsI truly believe that in years to come, this will be regarded as one of the great children's classics, right up at the top with Alice in Wonderland.
Rating:
- Not really for grown-upsHis Dark Materials is being touted as being 'for all ages', having made my way through 'Northern Lights' this 40 something has to disagree. My 10 year old daughter loved it, and I'm sure it is a good read for that age group.
However, I found myself slightly bored and irritated with it. Northern Lights is just too simplistic to stand up as a novel for grown-ups. The basic problem is that the world Lyra lives in never fully comes to life. We only get told what is needed for the plot, there isn't enough background detail to turn a sketch into something more substantial. Similarly the supporting characters are one dimensional archetypes rather than fully developed individuals.
All of which leaves a lot to be delivered by Lyra and the plot. I didn't really believe in Lyra - everything comes just a little to easily to her, and her tendency to drop into a mockney accent for no apparent reason didn't help.
The plot starts intriguingly but after a slightly dull middle turns into a series of grandstand action events, perhaps to take the readers mind off the lack of coherence in the story. Finally we get a series of lengthy and dull expositions from Lord Asriel & Mrs Coulter to try and make some sense of what has gone before. To be fair the ending does have sufficient `hook' to make we slightly curious about what happens next, but I won't be rushing to find out.
All in all judged as an adult book this is distinctly average steampunk/fantasy not worthy of the plaudits it has received.