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Northern Lights (His Dark Materials) by: Philip Pullman

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Publisher: Scholastic
Release date: 5th March, 2007
Media: Paperback

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Editorial Review

Lyra's life is already sufficiently interesting for a novel before she eavesdrops on a presentation by her uncle Lord Asriel to his colleagues in the Jordan College faculty, Oxford. The college, famed for its leadership in experimental theology, is funding Lord Asriel's research into the heretical possibility of the existence of worlds unlike Lyra's own, where everyone is born with a familiar animal companion, magic of a kind works, the Tartars are threatening to overrun Muscovy, and the Pope is a puritanical Protestant. Set in an England familiar and strange, Philip Pullman's lively, taut story is a must-read and re-read for fantasy lovers of all ages. The world-building is outstanding, from the subtle hints of the 1898 Tokay to odd quirks of language to the panserbjorne, while determined, clever Lyra is strongly reminiscent of Joan Aiken's Dido Twite.

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Average rating - (more reviews)

Rating: - Good, but not quite...

Well, where do I begin?

Without delving into the plot, I would like to make a few observations:

In essence the story is interesting and it held my concentration. There are a number of twists and turns and to Phillip Pullmans credit the story is entertaining. Each chapter unearths a new discovery, which contradicts what the reader had previously thought about the characters and plots. Although a `childlike' read, it was enjoyable.

However, I felt the alternative world created by Pullman could have been described more; it lacked sufficient detail for me and there was significant potential to paint a truly amazing world a reader could really be lost in. I also felt some of the characters were a little sketchy and not developed enough for me to believe them. Morevover, many of the characters and much of the plot succumbed to the same old clichés you find in other fantasy novels, prophecy, people coming together for the common good, long journey to be made to save the world blah blah blah...

An entertaining read but don't expect to be dazzled by description and unique characters.

Also for the record, I have given the book the benefit of the doubt with 4 stars although it really deserves 3½.

Rating: - Ineffable

I can't describe the envy I have for people who are just beginning to read this book and have the experience still to come.

Rating: - UTTERLY AMAZING

I've just finished reading this book and unlike some books i've read every chapter was fascinating and exciting and there wasen't any boring bits. I truly loved reading this and highly recommend it to anyone.

Rating: - Better than Potter?

This is the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy, touted my many as being a superior rival to the Harry Potter books. It's been on my "to-read" list for years and having been given it for my birthday I thought it was about time to actually read it. I can't believe I waited so long.

Set in a parallel universe, the plot centres on Lyra, a child who is cared for by staff at a college in Oxford. After overhearing a lecture by her Uncle, and a series of mysterious kidnappings, Lyra gets sucked into an adventure to find a missing servant boy.

The novel is populated with well drawn characters - the staid scholars of the college, the mysterious Mrs Coulter, the colourful Gyptions and a mighty armoured bear. The universe is familiar yet subtlety different with the exception of daemons; all the human characters are accompanied by an animal form (the daemon) - separate but interdependent - linked with an invisible bond.

Aside from the excellent writing - Mr Pullman scores several points over Ms Rowling in that regard - the novel is a gripping yarn. Not afraid to deal with violence and death, the story builds to a climax which simultaneously creates a bridge to the second novel. Indeed, Pullman expertly interweaves the story arc of this novel with the beginnings of the arc for the trilogy as whole.

Although nominally a Children's novel, it deals with big themes of identity, institutional (e.g. state or religious) control and philosophy. While I had some quibbles on elements of the ending, these do not distract much from my enjoyment of the story or the novel as a whole.

Is it better than Potter? While the writing is better, and the overall story arc more explicit from the outset, I wouldn't want to make a call in that regard. It's significantly different and more involved. Where Potter is escapism with dark themes throughout, this book is more about the ideas and themes themselves. You can still escape to Lyra's Oxford, though, and I recommend you do.

Rating: - Rather boring

People aren't going to like me for not liking this series, but though I normally really love big thick books, this trilogy has more problems than I can list here, the main one being how boring it is, first one is 0k, second one takes forever and a lot of the plot points don't make a great deal of sense when you think about it, why is she explicitly attracted to murderers, for example (that's a little creepy to be honest).

First book is 0k action-wise, but highly prejudiced and ever-ready to caricature, the second and third are the same, but overlong, very slow, and very boring with little in the way of good action, to the point that I barely finished them, I'm not sure what the hype is about really, controversy couldn't make Dan Brown a good author, but he's still better than Pullman, who seems to hate rather a lot of people in a way I can only describe as xenophobic.

Mild Spoilers:

In the second book her original friend, who she travelled half way round the world for, is discarded with hardly a thought for her new, and more-or-less identical, companion (I noticed that an awful lot of the characters feel copy-pasted, most of the white bears are paper-thin and all the antagonists seem to run on bile with no real convincing motive or personality).

The final battle, as well as all the action, feels distant and rather mellow-dramatic, as did everything in the second book. The trilogy doesn't seem to end as much as peter out, I left this series feeling unsatisfied and slightly puzzled, to be honest I've put it in a box upstairs and will probably forget about it totally. The characters and plot were unmemorable, nobody really seemed motivated to do anything, but did it anyway (Which is roughly how I felt when I finished the book).

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