Read: 16 December, 2008Awesome book - a complete page-turner. My only issue would be that Lyra seems much more passive than she did in The Golden Compass. She seems to just follow Will around rather than acting for herself. I can understand the idea that she is sacrificing her own desires to help Will accomplish his destiny, but it just seemed a shame to have the female character acting in such a way to a male character.
Reading some of the reviews on Shelfari, I have to agree that this book was more of a page-turner than the first one, but had less substance. Certainly, the action moved along quite quickly and a great deal of information was given out about the subtle knife and the Authority, but I guess that because we already know most of the characters, less time was needed to establish them. The result was a more plot-driven book than the first had been.
Also, Pullman used variations of the word "wary" far too much in the first dozen or so pages. Other than that, it was a fabulous book and I can't wait to read the third instalment!
Other books in the His Dark Materials series:
My favorite series as a child -- so disturbing, and so anti-church... hehe
ReplyDeleteIt really is! But at the same time, it was far more an attack on the dogmatic, anti-freedom aspects of religion rather than simply an attack on personal belief.
ReplyDeleteDefinitely! The visual "cutting off the soul" was such a powerful, and disturbing, image...
ReplyDeleteOh yes... The attacks on the children in general were fairly disturbing...
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