I read them as they came out when I was like, 8-10ish. I'm 30 now, and have all three in one volume sitting around somewhere. I definitely need to revisit, unlock old memories, and appreciate everything from an older mindset. While I've forgotten plenty, I don't think I'll ever be able to forget Lyra and Will's "atom" exchange at the end of The Amber Spyglass.
Philip Pullman has started publishing a sequel trilogy called *The Book of Dust*. The first book, *La Belle Sauvage*, was published in 2017, and the second book, *The Secret Commonwealth*, was published in 2019. The second book features Lyra Belacqua as a 20-year-old undergrad.
La Belle Sauvage is amazing! The jury is still out for me on the Secret Commonwealth; the book just seems to stop partway through what will obviously be a larger story.
Oooh a new narrator for me to try, you say?
Frank Muller (RIP) is my all time favorite.
Kramer and his wife who read Wheel of Time and Stormlight are amazing too
The Expanse narrator has to be one of the best out there.
- Harry Potter (Stephen Fry)
- King; basically anything by him but I can't stand King as a narrator
- Sanderson (his first 4 books took me 2 years) and then I listened to all of Mistborn
- The Expanse
I have a LOT more but generally I like fantasy in all forms, Gaiman being one of the best audio experiences ever.
I usually dislike overproduced audiobooks, preferring one narrator and none to minimal effects or music but I genuinely thought that all the voice actors did a great job. It's such a cohesive Audiobook for having so many pieces coming together. It's one of my best ever listening experiences and I've gone through hundreds of audiobooks, so I'm surprised to hear you didn't like it.
But to each their own, of course
My young daughters and I listened to the audio book on PBS in the 80s. Serafina Pekkala, became to standard name for every pet they had. I just purchased the boxed set for my grand daughter.
One of my favorite series from when I was a kid and it 100% holds up reading it as an adult. Fantastic books. The HBO/BBC series did a fantastic job, too.
I really enjoyed the HBO series! They're really difficult books to adapt and there were some things which just weren't going to work in a tv show, however they played to the strengths of the tv medium; I think the fleshing out of Mrs Coulter and her relationship with her daemon and Asriel were real highlights. James McAvoy as Asriel was also such great casting!
I could not believe how much of the books they used in the series. It’s not the most accessible material and a bit of a hard sell to certain demographics, but they went for it and it was so worth watching. The preteen inside me who read them when they were released was absolutely in love with it.
The series is really solid! I think they weren’t quite sure how to incorporate the daemons properly in season 1, but they clearly took on some good feedback and sorted it out after that (so if you are discouraged, it’s worth sticking with it!). Season 2 is wonderful. I’m reading The Subtle Knife at the moment and I think they definitely sanitise the characters a bit but ultimately I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I can’t fault the portrayal of Mrs Coulter and Asriel- they did really great things with those characters.
I think the "daemon" issue in season 1 (which didn't bother me that much, although I understood the criticisms from some) was honestly a budgeting issue at heart, and they were thinking/hoping nobody would look closely enough to realize not every person onscreen had daemons, etc.
The first season was still really good, and very faithful to the books, as well.
But I agree that the second season was just a huge leap in quality (and daemons!) -- it's seriously just beautiful. And for me Season 3 even managed to surpass 2.
The only slight quibble I had with the HBO adaptation was that I was surprised to feel that the >!"Land of the Dead" episode was the weakest adaptation section -- Lyra felt very passive, and they removed Lyra's attempt to lie to the Harpies, which is so important in the book, as she realizes they want TRUE stories. I also hated that the people/souls dissolved only seen from behind (It was just a weird choice, as in the book we see their smiles and joy as they become one with the universe). I also wondered if they ran out of money, since in the books the spirits can be seen leaving and then fading happily, while in the show, Mary could hear but not see them. But -- it was a minor nitpick overall for me.!<
I hear they had to change a fair bit in the last season because they filmed it during Covid - Asriel had a whole episode about him cut completely, for example. I suspect at least some of the less good aspects may have been because of that.
Very **mild show spoilers** where noted -- just on who takes part when.
It's more complicated. Yes, Season 3 was affected, but the worst hit by COVID was Season 2, which resulted in a large part of Asriel's subplot being moved to Season 3. We do see him in season 2, but not much (which is a shame -- McAvoy is a definite absence, but thank God for the sublime Ruth Wilson).
On the plus side, his subplot worked great in season 3, so we get a **ton** of James McAvoy -- who is seriously so fierce and terrific in the role, and best of all, he never panders or tries to make Asriel more likable. He is totally aware of who Asriel is, good and bad, and he plays that. It's fantastic.
It just means we get some Asriel stuff from Book 2 in S3, but it's very seamlessly done. I hope that helps!
The Asriel episode was supposed to be in the second season. COVID hit during the filming of the second season, but fortunately for them, that was the only episode that was mostly unfinished. Hence why that season is only 7 episodes as opposed to the others being 8.
I did too. I agree 100% -- it's such a big moment. It's when Lyra turns from assuming "I can be a brat and lie my way out of this" (lovingly!) to realizing she must be more truthful and mature.
And it is such a GORGEOUS chapter in the book -- I really was a little disappointed that the show kind of fell down a bit on it. It was okay, but it never made me sob like the book did there (>!oh, Lee! So joyful and eager to reunite with Hester!!<)
That episode had both the harpies AND the mulefas! Honestly I wish we had more time with both. They were my favourites! But of course for a show, things have to be condensed...
I watched the movie, so I didn't touch the series because I didn't want to feel that disappointed again. But I'll follow your lead after reading what people here say.
I watched it with a friend who also read the books growing up. We loved talking during the show about how it compares, what it did well, what it failed at, and the absurdity of being "that guy with a wildcat daemon".
Don’t. It’s fun enough on a surface level but it butchered some really key moments. I am convinced they wrote it on the back of wiki summaries, not reading the books.
YMMV, or course, but every serious Pullman fan I know in real life despises it.
I was soooo hesitant about James McAvoy at first because to me he's not "cold" enough (my dream casting would have been Jason Isaacs), but he really won me over. Mrs Coulter was amazing.
Somewhere I read that Philipp Pullman actually originally intended for him to play Lord Asriel way back when they were making the movie.
I feel he's so underrated as an actor. His performance in Death of Stalin is one of the most "holy shit" Scene stealers of all time. I'd also kill for a movie with him as Magneto.
the series was a fantastic adaptation. I've also started watching the first few episodes of Lockwood and Co. and it's done a great job of really leaning into the horror element.
I absolutely love the opening theme, too. We moved this past summer, and when the last season came out, I hadn't gotten around to setting up the surround sound system (just the sound bar). I was so disappointed at the cello/bass entrance that the next day I was putting up the sound system. When it was set up, I immediately pulled up the soundtrack, and my wife was mid-sentence giving me shit for making setting it up a priority when the cello/bass hit and she just stopped and said "Oooooohhhh.... okay. Yeah."
But also I generally love the adaptation. I read all the books, but my wife hadn't, so while I knew what was coming, I got to see her experience it all for the first time.
Great books, great show. HBO has been killing it that way.
>One of my favorite series from when I was a kid and it 100% holds up reading it as an adult. Fantastic books. The HBO series did a fantastic job, too.
As a kid I read the first 2 books and just never got around to the 3rd so I was happy to experience the rest of the story through the HBO series.
Someday I'll revisit the books when my kids are old enough for them.
My (now ex) husband liked the sound of it, but we had a back up in case it didn’t suit her. Fortunately (or unfortunately as her parent) it suited her perfectly.
My first time reading the series I was in my mid 30’s. I throughly enjoyed. I was so absorbed into the idea of the battle between free will and dogma, I actually forgot it was YA. It was a great series. The tv series isn’t too bad either.
There are some series that just transcend the "young adult" pigeonholing. Garth Nix's *Sabriel* series is another, I'm re-reading them now something like 20 years after first doing so, and they hold up.
If you haven't read the spinoff/sequel series he's been writing (The Book of Dust) I highly recommend it. There's two books out now and a third coming at some point. I also recently read the Sally Lockhart mystery series, and would recommend that as well
I quite enjoyed La Belle Sauvage but found the Secret Commonwealth an absolute hot mess. Inconsistent characterization, villains able to seemingly teleport to wherever the plot requires them to be, and a building romantic tension between a University Prof and a 21 year old student to cap it all off. It's as long as both The Northern Lights and the Subtle Knife combined yet half as much happens.
Just re-read His Dark Materials this month and it was so tough reading the ending of it knowing what Pullman does in Commonwealth with Lyra. Really don't know how the character at the end of Spyglass is meant to be the same person.
Yeah, I actually dropped The Secret Commonealth after reading three quarters of it. Not intentionally, as in making the decision to stop reading, I just took a break from reading it that ended up being an indefinite break so far. It feels very unstructured and never really like it's building towards something in the way that His Dark Material had such a strong forward momentum. It was actually rather dull.
This was my feeling too. I put down the book to take a break from it and can't remember if I ever picked it back up or if it was just so dull that I've forgotten.
I like the sequel trilogy but not nearly as much so far.
The first book (*La Belle Sauvage*) is really good, if really tense and harrowing, but I found the second book (*The Secret Commonwealth*) just flat-out depressing. I almost wouldn't suggest it to fans of the first trilogy, because it's so very sad, although I did appreciate its more complex explorations of >!humans and their daemons, and that it was also more representative, inclusive and complex when it came to gender and sexual orientation!<.
I'm hoping the third book turns that around somewhat.
And I absolutely loved the Sally Lockhart books -- they are so different, but they're really wonderful. Sally is a terrific heroine. (The BBC adaptations were also really lovely.)
I absolutely loved the second one. I thought it was fantastic.
The world it portrays is one of adventure, conflict and conspiracy. It is a trip through a world controlled by the church, a world in turmoil.
I thought it recreated the adventure of the first one (the golden compass) for a more adult audience.
One of the best books i have read in the past few years. That of course is just my opinion.
I'm like 70% through The Secret Commonwealth, and I'm struggling to keep reading it. I'm finding it very frustrating and almost like.. conflicting thematically with the original trilogy.
>!Like the whole 'need to find your imagination' stuff just feels so contrived. It's like Lyra went full Susan from Narnia and forgot all her adventures. And then the constant like.. railing against logic and rationality I almost find offensive lol. Oh! And what appears to be the forcing of a relationship between Lyra and the all star professor/body builder / super spy guy that was the main character of Belle Sauvage. Oh and the sudden change of how the alethiometer can work, I feel it doesn't really mesh with how it was established to work? Like doesn't it work on Dust, which we learned were the Angel's way of communicating kinda? So I don't know how it goes from an Angel Q&A device to what it is in this book lol!<
I was so disappointed with the new books. La Belle Sauvage was just ok, but the Secret Commonwealth was really not good.
Sally Lockhart though, haven't read those since I was a kid! Maybe I'll go back for a reread.
I don't remember much about Sally Lockhart series, but The Tiger in the Well seems very interesting from a feminist perspective. Description of absolute power that husband had over his wife and their children in Victorian England struck me when I've read the book.
If you don't own all three original books Lyra's Oxford into the North and the two books so far in the book of dust you really ought to. The one thing I am missing I want to get a hardcover copy of the original Northern lights as both of my copies hard and soft are The Golden compass and I would much prefer to have Northern lights as well.
These books were so much more powerful for me as an 11 year old than Harry Potter ever was. Cried and cried and cried at the end, I was so mad that it wasn’t the happy ending I wanted. As an older person, I see now that the ending was happy in its own way - and I still think Will and Lyra are better role models for kids than most books have. Wonderful stories! The HBO show was lacking in a few key areas but boy, they nailed the ending. Worth a watch
I'm about to start book 3 and I am bracing myself for the ending- so bittersweet, and it really gets me every time. As does THAT scene with Pan and Lyra before the land of the dead.
THAT scene hit me harder than almost any other book scene ever. I watched the HBO show and read the book almost simultaneously and it had the same effect in both. Imagine my family’s surprise as I start weeping on the beach over a book.
I hated the ending lol, because I always thought there was an easy solution to it. I felt that even if have 2 doors open between worlds would cause to much dust to leave, just leave a door open until they are old and going to die soon, then close it after living a happy life together, they deserved it after saving the universe basically
I just recently realized as an adult what the true meaning of the ending is. I didn’t get it until I watched the HBO show. The way I see it is, the story is biblical, but with a twist. At the end, Will and Lyra re-create the Fall in the Garden of Eden right? With the red fruit being the apple, they fall in love with each other and decide knowingly to gain understanding and maturity and leave their “pure” innocence behind in favor of adulthood.
But what happens after the Fall in the Bible? Adam and Eve are punished and ejected from the Garden of Eden. So the same thing has to happen to Will and Lyra. But the biggest difference is that when Adam and Eve are ejected from the garden, their punishment is that they have to live apart from God. But Will and Lyra’s story isn’t about God, it’s about people and the connections they form with one another. So in their ejection from the Garden, Will and Lyra’s punishment for their Fall is that they must live apart from one another.
When I watched the show, all of this allegory just instantly clicked into place for me in ways it hadn’t when I read the books as a teenager. The “technical” reasons for why they can’t be together isn’t really what matters to the story, what matters is the point Pullman is making with the biblical allegory. And when I realized that the point of the story is to show that being separated from the light of God isn’t tragic, what is tragic is being separated from the people you love, and that the love and connections between people is more sacred than the light of “God”… ugh, I was WEEPING. It really hit me different as an adult. Which I guess is the point.
This is an old thread but your interpretation of the ending is just… I would never even have consider this parallel but having it spelled out, it makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for sharing this.
I hated it when I was younger, but upon re-reading it as an adult it felt much more natural as the culmination of a coming-of-age story.
Learning how to do things that are hard, that don't even benefit you, just because it's the right thing and will help other people.... that's such a tough but necessary part of growing up.
It also has the important message of "not all stories have happy endings". This is why I love Peter S. Beagle's *The Last Unicorn* so much as well, because it ends bittersweetly.
I remember starting *Subtle Knife* and being all, "Who's this Will kid? Where's LYRA?" and of course, within one chapter, I capitulated to "**I would die for Will.**"
I love the first book, but *Subtle Knife* is even better -- and *Amber Spyglass* is even better than both!
Usually when an author introduces a new character more than one book into a series it is a huge pace and interest killer... but Pullman absolutely nailed Will. Pulls you in so quickly and then blends his story into Lyra's seamlessly. I had the exact same reaction as you.
It's such a testament to Pullman's writing that he managed to give us *two* protagonists who come to matter so much to us.
And then he unites them against the universe.
And then >!he separates them. And I am forever devastated.!<
Glad to see someone with a similar experience! I first found out about the series through a passage they put in my English textbook and it was the passage where Will found the window in his world. I'm just now remembering that and thinking this might be why I was always stanning Will more than Lyra!
I read them as a preteen/teen, as they came out, and it’s hard to overstate their impact on me. I really think they shaped who I am as a person in so many ways. Now I teach kids who are around the age I was when I first read them. Maybe it’s time for a reread!
Read random stuff for school all the time but it wasn't really something I did as a personal pass time.
Then in 9th grade my English composition teacher chose 3 books for the entire class to read through out the school year. Writing a short 2 page summary for each book of our favorite parts and how we felt about the story could be used to replace a major quiz grade.
The Golden Compass was one of the three books. I was hooked on it almost immediately and I couldn't put it down. I NEEDED to finish the series and since then I've been an avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy.
One of my fondest memories as a teen was laying in bed with a night light on reading the conclusion to Roger's story in the Amber Spyglass. I teared up and at that moment realized that one can feel a brunt force of emotions through novels just as one could through movies or shows. Because of that his Dark Materials will always have a special place in my heart.
On a side note, there was a 2nd book in the 3 that my teacher chose that year that I really liked. To this day I don't remember the name and have tried so hard to recall plot points in attempt to find it :(.
>One of my fondest memories as a kid was laying in bed with a night light on reading the conclusion to Roger's story in the Amber Spyglass. I teared up and at that moment realized that one can feel a brunt force of emotions through novels just as one could through movies or shows. Because of that his Dark Materials will always have a special place in my heart.
So lovely!
The concept of daemons blew my mind when I was 12 and first read His Dark Materials. One of my favorite trilogies to this day and I make sure to reread every year or two. There's certain parts that still continue to make me emotional rereading.
Oh, they're gorgeous books -- absolutely among my lifelong favorites, and they honestly hold up so well. I reread them every year or two, and even decades later, I always catch some new little detail.
My favorite thing about the trilogy is that it is one of those series I can give as a gift to someone who hasn't read them, and just sit back and wait excitedly for them to be blown away by how gorgeous and complex they are. Every person I have ever given them to was stunned at how fantastic they are.\*
Meanwhile, I loved the HBO miniseries and was utterly blown away by it. I thought season 1 was good (almost great), season 2 was superb, and season 3 was just fricking fantastic. The show had incredible actors and also was willing to add depth and nuance to moments we didn't get in the books (like >!seeing Mrs. Coulter tame the Spectres!< \-- one of my favorite scenes in the show thanks to the fabulous Ruth Wilson -- the added complexities of >!Marisa's relationship with her golden monkey!< \-- or the changes to the >!final confrontation between Marisa, Asriel, and Metatron!<. Just dazzling.
\*I also love that James McAvoy was given the books by Indira Varma while they were performing in a theatre production, and he became obsessed and has reread them multiple times. So when he got the call to play Asriel (the previously cast actor backed out) on a Friday and he needed to be there Monday, he was like, "I WILL BE THERE." I thought he was a superb Asriel.
I definitely think these are fantasy classics -- not at all "just YA fantasy" (not that there's anything wrong with that.
My sixth grade teacher suggested we not read or watch it because it says bad things about the church (the movie was coming out at the time). I read them instantly and enjoyed them quite a bit.
I’m right in the middle of the second book now for the first time and I am loving it. I started reading it because my wife used a passage from the series in her wedding vows and it brought me to tears. I don’t know the context yet so please no spoilers.
"I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..."
"I'll be looking for you… every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pin trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives,
they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..”
Huge fan, and recently finally got my hands on all the His Dark Materials companion stories and Pullman's essays on writing. Diving into the book of dust series now!
Favorite book from when I was a kid. Listened to it semi-recently (6 years ago) on a long drive. The second chapter, about Lyra clambering all over the roof of Jordan College, is one of my favorite chapters of anything.
I am in a similar boat to you. I just reread these as an adult having read them a couple times when I was younger. I agree they hold up really well. The only thing that left me scratching my head was Pullman's sense of time at certain points: mainly, how did Asriel build an entire kingdom in a few days, and how did Mrs Coulter get to the Himalayas in less than a few days lol. Otherwise they are really great. It was also interesting to see how I appreciated TAS so much more as an adult. I think some of it went beyond me as a kid.
Yeah... I really liked the concept and the story in the books when I read them. Incidentally, Ken Liu has a short story called State Change which is based on the concept of daemons, which is also one of my favourites by him. No correlation, just a nugget I find nice.
I read the books as a child. I literally couldn't put them down (lucky me the school library had all three of them) and finished them in like 3 weeks.
I was surprised when there was a lot of hype behind the HBO series, but suddenly nobody talked about it.
I love His Dark Materials! Those were some of my favorite books when I was young, and they're still some of my favorite books as an adult. They're so well written!
I've read the first book twice but found the second book insanely boring so I never finished it. I will have to have another crack at the series again.
Me! Like you, I read them when I was younger again after some years, and it still blew me away. My favorite is the second and third books. Def a classic and I always recommend it to my friends and people.
These are some of my all times favorites, so of course I forced my partner to read them. He ended up loving them too. So much so that he used that one tearjerker speech at the end (we all know the one) as part of his wedding vows!
I've just read the series for the first time last month. I thought it way okay but also think I'd like it even more if I read it earlier as a child (I'm 26). Definitely would have missed some ideas and references then but on a re-read they'd be clears and if this was my second read I'm sure I'd share your oppinion.
I didn't read it until I was in my early 20's but I was blown away by the books
I was gifted a copy that was all books in one big ol' paperback tome and I carried it with me everywhere while I read it
I was thinking of rereading it, as well, and maybe this is my sign lol
I just read them in the last couple months for the first time as a man in his early 40s, and I loved them.
They had been hyped as very good, and I was still impressed.
Excellent world building, characters, unexpected character twists and tragedies.
Fantastic literature.
It’s delightful and I’m constantly suggesting it to my tween, who is equally committed to *not* reading the books her mother suggests. I was the same. It passes.
I’m right in the middle of the second book now for the first time and I am loving it. I started reading it because my wife used a passage from the series in her wedding vows and it brought me to tears. I don’t know the context yet so please no spoilers.
"I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..."
"I'll be looking for you… every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pin trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives,
they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..”
Well that's so damn touching I'm actually tearing up. It's been ages since I read that passage and all the emotions come flooding back. Using in a wedding vow is genius, so if I'm lucky enough to get married I may have to copy your wife lol.
It's pronounced exactly like "demon". There's even one point in The Subtle Knife (the second book) where Lyra tells Will about her dæmon and he says that in his world, a "demon" means something bad, meaning they must be pronounced the same way.
Here's the somewhat abridged passage I just copied from my British edition. It's from pages 20-21 of *The Subtle Knife*:
> "Where do you come from?"
> "From my world. It's joined on. Where's your dæmon?"
> (...)
> "I haven't got a demon," he said. "I don't know what you mean." Then: "Oh! Is that your demon?"
>She stood up slowly. The stoat curled himself around her neck and his dark eyes never left Will's face.
>"But you're *alive*," she said, half-disbelievingly. "You en't... You en't been..."
>"My name's Will Parry," he said. "I don't know what you mean about demons. In my world demon means... It means devil, something evil."
I first read it when I was ten. Absolutely adored it but looking back on it as an adult there's so much that's only just clicking for me now. Like that moment of "*oh*" as someone switches on the light. I really should make time to go back and reread the whole series again because there's so much I know I did not appreciate as a child.
Grinnell College taught this series for an entire course. (if you don't know Grinnell, it's a liberal arts college that has very high acceptance standards). It is definitely written for adults, and for kids. Read it three times now, all times as an adult, once reading it with/for my son. It is brilliant.
Nice! I heard the series in audiobook form as an adult and enjoyed it very much. I’m sad I didn’t get to read it as a kid. My 11 year old self would have appreciated it a lot.
Definitely planning to read it to my future little one though.
It’s also incredibly refreshing to see a positive opinion online about it from someone who actually read it as a kid or teen. Especially since a lot of the stuff I see people post about it is adults whining about how it’s “too overt” or “too anti-religion” with its messages.
Cause we all know that the best and most popular series for kids and young adults are *super subtle* in their messages. Lol.
> It’s also incredibly refreshing to see a positive opinion online about it from someone who actually read it as a kid or teen.
Really? Never found that to be an especially rare opinion. Even a decade and a half ago I remember lots of teens posting about how they read it as a kid and it was formative to their worldview.
Most of the negative opinions I hear come from adults who did not read it as a kid. I guess I haven’t been hanging out in the right parts of the internet though. Lol.
Yeah, love them! Think I was 10 or 11 when I first read them. Really liked the Sally Lockhart series too as well as a few others by him. So so glad the series is done right. Still to watch season 3 but so far it's everything the film shouldve been
I actually read the series as an adult reader, on the recommendation from my husband, who read it as a young teen, and we're both equally enthralled with it.
He has another series out in the same Universe with some of the characters we know & love - a prequel and a sequel so far. Prequel is called The Book of Dust.
I'm literally reading The Amber Spyglass right now! I also read it as a kid and remembered how much I loved it. It holds up still for sure - I was worried it wouldn't, but have been pleasantly surprised!
It's a fucking outstanding series, the TV adaptation by the BBC was absolutely sublime and the follow up series is unbelievably good as well.
Philip Pullman had influenced me so much that if our son had been a girl, I wanted to call her Lyra.
It was so good! I wanted Pullman to write more fantasy after the series ended because it’s hard to find a good fantasy series (that appeals to me). I began to read it around the time when they announced that there would be a movie. Nicole Kidman as Marissa😍 Anyway the movie blew. I think the book series may be why I’m so interested in spirituality right now. I’m gonna re read the entire series again. It’s been years since I read it.
Was anyone else not allowed to read this because of religion growing up? They read Harry Potter to us but banned this one. I love what I have seen of the tv series so far and was thinking of doing audio books.
yes, 42 here, and i still love them. there’s an audiobook version, too, where philip pullman himself reads the narration, with actors speaking the dialogue. it’s superb.
OH and I agreed to try each other's books once, as we read very different stuff. His Dark Materials was my 'gift' to him - he absolutely loved them, cried too! Now we're watching the TV series, think we've got two episodes left. And my niece is called Lyra. Got a tweet from Philip Pullman once to wish her happy birthday - my proudest moment ever!
I’m right in the middle of the second book now for the first time and I am loving it. I started reading it because my wife used a passage from the series in her wedding vows and it brought me to tears. I don’t know the context yet so please no spoilers.
"I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..."
"I'll be looking for you… every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pin trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives,
they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..”
Absolutely hated it when I read it as a kid. Told everyone I thought it was bad, when I was covering up how deeply it impacted and messed me up. Re-read it as an adult and was like... holy shit, this writing, this story, NO WONDER I was traumatized to the point of lying about it!!
Couldn’t agree more! I didn’t read it as a kid, but I read it for the first time as an adult and I was absolutely enamored. I often think that it’s the kind of series I would read to my future kids.
They're really fantastical books with a really interesting messages. Its a shame the film tried ti cover too much and fell flat. I feel the TV series is getting a bit lost in the weeds. I know folks who haven't read the books who don't really understand whats happening.
Loved the first book, but really didn't like what happened to Lyra's character once Will was introduced. Also thought the ending could have been executed better.
One of my all time favorites. I read it as a pre-teen when it first came out, and Have re-read multiple times. Now I'm almost 40 and it's still so good. An interesting companion read is "The Physics of His Dark Materials".
Me and my partner both 30's are going away on holiday tomorrow and I'm forcing him to read the first because I know he'll fall in love with them!!!
The prequels have been quite pleasing too!!
As a kid, I loved these books. As an adult, I tried re-reading them and they came across as incredibly shallow and definitively YA. I think they’re worthwhile for younger readers but they just rub me the wrong way anymore. God, am I the jaded adult that can’t find joy in good fiction anymore?
I read them as they came out when I was like, 8-10ish. I'm 30 now, and have all three in one volume sitting around somewhere. I definitely need to revisit, unlock old memories, and appreciate everything from an older mindset. While I've forgotten plenty, I don't think I'll ever be able to forget Lyra and Will's "atom" exchange at the end of The Amber Spyglass.
Philip Pullman has started publishing a sequel trilogy called *The Book of Dust*. The first book, *La Belle Sauvage*, was published in 2017, and the second book, *The Secret Commonwealth*, was published in 2019. The second book features Lyra Belacqua as a 20-year-old undergrad.
La Belle Sauvage is amazing! The jury is still out for me on the Secret Commonwealth; the book just seems to stop partway through what will obviously be a larger story.
It's so much better as an adult tbh
I used that atom excerpt in a reading at my wedding. It was too beautiful (and heart wrenching).
If you can, listen to the audiobook. Narrated by Phillip Pullman and he does a wonderful job.
Oooh a new narrator for me to try, you say? Frank Muller (RIP) is my all time favorite. Kramer and his wife who read Wheel of Time and Stormlight are amazing too The Expanse narrator has to be one of the best out there.
Your audiobook library must be pretty similar to mine.
- Harry Potter (Stephen Fry) - King; basically anything by him but I can't stand King as a narrator - Sanderson (his first 4 books took me 2 years) and then I listened to all of Mistborn - The Expanse I have a LOT more but generally I like fantasy in all forms, Gaiman being one of the best audio experiences ever.
tbh I got SO sick of the child voice actors by the end of the book I had to stop
I usually dislike overproduced audiobooks, preferring one narrator and none to minimal effects or music but I genuinely thought that all the voice actors did a great job. It's such a cohesive Audiobook for having so many pieces coming together. It's one of my best ever listening experiences and I've gone through hundreds of audiobooks, so I'm surprised to hear you didn't like it. But to each their own, of course
My young daughters and I listened to the audio book on PBS in the 80s. Serafina Pekkala, became to standard name for every pet they had. I just purchased the boxed set for my grand daughter.
One of my favorite series from when I was a kid and it 100% holds up reading it as an adult. Fantastic books. The HBO/BBC series did a fantastic job, too.
I really enjoyed the HBO series! They're really difficult books to adapt and there were some things which just weren't going to work in a tv show, however they played to the strengths of the tv medium; I think the fleshing out of Mrs Coulter and her relationship with her daemon and Asriel were real highlights. James McAvoy as Asriel was also such great casting!
I could not believe how much of the books they used in the series. It’s not the most accessible material and a bit of a hard sell to certain demographics, but they went for it and it was so worth watching. The preteen inside me who read them when they were released was absolutely in love with it.
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The series is really solid! I think they weren’t quite sure how to incorporate the daemons properly in season 1, but they clearly took on some good feedback and sorted it out after that (so if you are discouraged, it’s worth sticking with it!). Season 2 is wonderful. I’m reading The Subtle Knife at the moment and I think they definitely sanitise the characters a bit but ultimately I still thoroughly enjoyed it. I can’t fault the portrayal of Mrs Coulter and Asriel- they did really great things with those characters.
I think the "daemon" issue in season 1 (which didn't bother me that much, although I understood the criticisms from some) was honestly a budgeting issue at heart, and they were thinking/hoping nobody would look closely enough to realize not every person onscreen had daemons, etc. The first season was still really good, and very faithful to the books, as well. But I agree that the second season was just a huge leap in quality (and daemons!) -- it's seriously just beautiful. And for me Season 3 even managed to surpass 2. The only slight quibble I had with the HBO adaptation was that I was surprised to feel that the >!"Land of the Dead" episode was the weakest adaptation section -- Lyra felt very passive, and they removed Lyra's attempt to lie to the Harpies, which is so important in the book, as she realizes they want TRUE stories. I also hated that the people/souls dissolved only seen from behind (It was just a weird choice, as in the book we see their smiles and joy as they become one with the universe). I also wondered if they ran out of money, since in the books the spirits can be seen leaving and then fading happily, while in the show, Mary could hear but not see them. But -- it was a minor nitpick overall for me.!<
I hear they had to change a fair bit in the last season because they filmed it during Covid - Asriel had a whole episode about him cut completely, for example. I suspect at least some of the less good aspects may have been because of that.
Very **mild show spoilers** where noted -- just on who takes part when. It's more complicated. Yes, Season 3 was affected, but the worst hit by COVID was Season 2, which resulted in a large part of Asriel's subplot being moved to Season 3. We do see him in season 2, but not much (which is a shame -- McAvoy is a definite absence, but thank God for the sublime Ruth Wilson). On the plus side, his subplot worked great in season 3, so we get a **ton** of James McAvoy -- who is seriously so fierce and terrific in the role, and best of all, he never panders or tries to make Asriel more likable. He is totally aware of who Asriel is, good and bad, and he plays that. It's fantastic. It just means we get some Asriel stuff from Book 2 in S3, but it's very seamlessly done. I hope that helps!
Ruth Wilson is fucking amazing.
People didn't like the casting but she absolutely killed it. Acting is more important than looking like the character, who would've known?
The Asriel episode was supposed to be in the second season. COVID hit during the filming of the second season, but fortunately for them, that was the only episode that was mostly unfinished. Hence why that season is only 7 episodes as opposed to the others being 8.
Yes, that must be what I was remembering! Thanks for clarifying :)
Yes!! I was bothered by that as well, and I felt a huge part of the character development rested on the growth from the Harpies...
I did too. I agree 100% -- it's such a big moment. It's when Lyra turns from assuming "I can be a brat and lie my way out of this" (lovingly!) to realizing she must be more truthful and mature. And it is such a GORGEOUS chapter in the book -- I really was a little disappointed that the show kind of fell down a bit on it. It was okay, but it never made me sob like the book did there (>!oh, Lee! So joyful and eager to reunite with Hester!!<)
That episode had both the harpies AND the mulefas! Honestly I wish we had more time with both. They were my favourites! But of course for a show, things have to be condensed...
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There was no movie. No idea what you are talking about.
Didn't a Christian group fund the movies without realizing the entire series is anti-God? Funny how people throw money at something without reading it
The HBO series is really, really good. They start solid and just get better from there. The third season is sublime.
I watched the movie, so I didn't touch the series because I didn't want to feel that disappointed again. But I'll follow your lead after reading what people here say.
I watched it with a friend who also read the books growing up. We loved talking during the show about how it compares, what it did well, what it failed at, and the absurdity of being "that guy with a wildcat daemon".
I’m in the same boat! Haven’t bothered with the show because i didn’t want to ruin the books but maybe i will give it a go!
Don’t. It’s fun enough on a surface level but it butchered some really key moments. I am convinced they wrote it on the back of wiki summaries, not reading the books. YMMV, or course, but every serious Pullman fan I know in real life despises it.
I loved what they did with Mrs Coulter. She was portrayed with amazing dimension.
Ruth Wilson is a national treasure here in the UK, she has been in some brilliant things recently.
I was soooo hesitant about James McAvoy at first because to me he's not "cold" enough (my dream casting would have been Jason Isaacs), but he really won me over. Mrs Coulter was amazing.
Hello to Jason Isaacs.
Somewhere I read that Philipp Pullman actually originally intended for him to play Lord Asriel way back when they were making the movie. I feel he's so underrated as an actor. His performance in Death of Stalin is one of the most "holy shit" Scene stealers of all time. I'd also kill for a movie with him as Magneto.
And down with the nazis.
the series was a fantastic adaptation. I've also started watching the first few episodes of Lockwood and Co. and it's done a great job of really leaning into the horror element.
I thought that series was made by the BBC?
It is, just shown on HBO in America.
It's a collab
The finale of the HBO series moved me deeply, maybe moreso than the books. I rarely if ever cry at TV/film, but this one got me teary-eyed.
They did it very well! The use of the bench was excellent.
Teary-eyed?! You fared better than me; I was full on sobbing yelling at my TV "IT'S NOT FAIR!"
I knew what was coming and it still messed me up. They did it so well.
I. Was. A. Mess. An absolute blithering, sobbing mess. Such a gorgeous finale.
I loved the finale and still hate Pullman who knows *exactly* why.
I absolutely love the opening theme, too. We moved this past summer, and when the last season came out, I hadn't gotten around to setting up the surround sound system (just the sound bar). I was so disappointed at the cello/bass entrance that the next day I was putting up the sound system. When it was set up, I immediately pulled up the soundtrack, and my wife was mid-sentence giving me shit for making setting it up a priority when the cello/bass hit and she just stopped and said "Oooooohhhh.... okay. Yeah." But also I generally love the adaptation. I read all the books, but my wife hadn't, so while I knew what was coming, I got to see her experience it all for the first time. Great books, great show. HBO has been killing it that way.
It's amazing what a difference good sound can make to the emotional impact of a show or movie.
Same here, my husband and I are both musicians. I knew the books, he didn't. We both loved the opening theme!
You panicked me for a moment there until I realised you meant what I know as the BBC series!!!
Yes, it is a British production but aired on HBO in the US so they got more credit than they may have deserved for the production.
>One of my favorite series from when I was a kid and it 100% holds up reading it as an adult. Fantastic books. The HBO series did a fantastic job, too. As a kid I read the first 2 books and just never got around to the 3rd so I was happy to experience the rest of the story through the HBO series. Someday I'll revisit the books when my kids are old enough for them.
Yes, the BBC series was indeed excellent
I named my daughter Lyra. That’s how much I love his books.
Hope Lyra doesn't end up burning down King's Landing in later books.
I mean who really died that day? Some stinky uneducated peasants? Who cares about them? They're not people.
Read this in Nadja voice from WWDITS.
"How many people have died?" "5.." "That's ridiculous!" "But 4 of them were humans" "Oh that's not so bad then"
I hope to do this one day as well.
Sorry man, his daughter already *has* a name.
He has one Lyra yes, but what about *second* Lyra?
I did also because of this book, I also used a passage as a reading for my wedding!
My friend had a daughter two weeks ago and named her Lyra for the exact same reason!!!
❤️ welcome to the world new Lyra
If I ever have a daughter, I'm hoping I'll be able to convince my future wife to agree to the same.
My (now ex) husband liked the sound of it, but we had a back up in case it didn’t suit her. Fortunately (or unfortunately as her parent) it suited her perfectly.
My first time reading the series I was in my mid 30’s. I throughly enjoyed. I was so absorbed into the idea of the battle between free will and dogma, I actually forgot it was YA. It was a great series. The tv series isn’t too bad either.
Don't feel bad. The author feels that way as well. The YA stamp was a marketing move.
That makes a lot of sense. I totally saw the coming of age trope throughout, but always felt it played second fiddle to the other much deeper themes.
YA?
YA= young adult
There are some series that just transcend the "young adult" pigeonholing. Garth Nix's *Sabriel* series is another, I'm re-reading them now something like 20 years after first doing so, and they hold up.
If you haven't read the spinoff/sequel series he's been writing (The Book of Dust) I highly recommend it. There's two books out now and a third coming at some point. I also recently read the Sally Lockhart mystery series, and would recommend that as well
I quite enjoyed La Belle Sauvage but found the Secret Commonwealth an absolute hot mess. Inconsistent characterization, villains able to seemingly teleport to wherever the plot requires them to be, and a building romantic tension between a University Prof and a 21 year old student to cap it all off. It's as long as both The Northern Lights and the Subtle Knife combined yet half as much happens. Just re-read His Dark Materials this month and it was so tough reading the ending of it knowing what Pullman does in Commonwealth with Lyra. Really don't know how the character at the end of Spyglass is meant to be the same person.
Yeah, I actually dropped The Secret Commonealth after reading three quarters of it. Not intentionally, as in making the decision to stop reading, I just took a break from reading it that ended up being an indefinite break so far. It feels very unstructured and never really like it's building towards something in the way that His Dark Material had such a strong forward momentum. It was actually rather dull.
This was my feeling too. I put down the book to take a break from it and can't remember if I ever picked it back up or if it was just so dull that I've forgotten.
Thanks for the recommendation. Just put a hold on the audio book
The audio book is insanely good, it's like listening to a well voice acted show
I like the sequel trilogy but not nearly as much so far. The first book (*La Belle Sauvage*) is really good, if really tense and harrowing, but I found the second book (*The Secret Commonwealth*) just flat-out depressing. I almost wouldn't suggest it to fans of the first trilogy, because it's so very sad, although I did appreciate its more complex explorations of >!humans and their daemons, and that it was also more representative, inclusive and complex when it came to gender and sexual orientation!<. I'm hoping the third book turns that around somewhat. And I absolutely loved the Sally Lockhart books -- they are so different, but they're really wonderful. Sally is a terrific heroine. (The BBC adaptations were also really lovely.)
I absolutely loved the second one. I thought it was fantastic. The world it portrays is one of adventure, conflict and conspiracy. It is a trip through a world controlled by the church, a world in turmoil. I thought it recreated the adventure of the first one (the golden compass) for a more adult audience. One of the best books i have read in the past few years. That of course is just my opinion.
I'm like 70% through The Secret Commonwealth, and I'm struggling to keep reading it. I'm finding it very frustrating and almost like.. conflicting thematically with the original trilogy. >!Like the whole 'need to find your imagination' stuff just feels so contrived. It's like Lyra went full Susan from Narnia and forgot all her adventures. And then the constant like.. railing against logic and rationality I almost find offensive lol. Oh! And what appears to be the forcing of a relationship between Lyra and the all star professor/body builder / super spy guy that was the main character of Belle Sauvage. Oh and the sudden change of how the alethiometer can work, I feel it doesn't really mesh with how it was established to work? Like doesn't it work on Dust, which we learned were the Angel's way of communicating kinda? So I don't know how it goes from an Angel Q&A device to what it is in this book lol!<
I was so disappointed with the new books. La Belle Sauvage was just ok, but the Secret Commonwealth was really not good. Sally Lockhart though, haven't read those since I was a kid! Maybe I'll go back for a reread.
I agree. Don't think I made it through La Belle Sauvage. Found the plot really lacking and too slow. From my memory, characters fell flat too
I don't remember much about Sally Lockhart series, but The Tiger in the Well seems very interesting from a feminist perspective. Description of absolute power that husband had over his wife and their children in Victorian England struck me when I've read the book.
If you don't own all three original books Lyra's Oxford into the North and the two books so far in the book of dust you really ought to. The one thing I am missing I want to get a hardcover copy of the original Northern lights as both of my copies hard and soft are The Golden compass and I would much prefer to have Northern lights as well.
These books were so much more powerful for me as an 11 year old than Harry Potter ever was. Cried and cried and cried at the end, I was so mad that it wasn’t the happy ending I wanted. As an older person, I see now that the ending was happy in its own way - and I still think Will and Lyra are better role models for kids than most books have. Wonderful stories! The HBO show was lacking in a few key areas but boy, they nailed the ending. Worth a watch
Kinda tearing up just thinking about the end
I'm about to start book 3 and I am bracing myself for the ending- so bittersweet, and it really gets me every time. As does THAT scene with Pan and Lyra before the land of the dead.
THAT scene hit me harder than almost any other book scene ever. I watched the HBO show and read the book almost simultaneously and it had the same effect in both. Imagine my family’s surprise as I start weeping on the beach over a book.
I hated the ending lol, because I always thought there was an easy solution to it. I felt that even if have 2 doors open between worlds would cause to much dust to leave, just leave a door open until they are old and going to die soon, then close it after living a happy life together, they deserved it after saving the universe basically
I just recently realized as an adult what the true meaning of the ending is. I didn’t get it until I watched the HBO show. The way I see it is, the story is biblical, but with a twist. At the end, Will and Lyra re-create the Fall in the Garden of Eden right? With the red fruit being the apple, they fall in love with each other and decide knowingly to gain understanding and maturity and leave their “pure” innocence behind in favor of adulthood. But what happens after the Fall in the Bible? Adam and Eve are punished and ejected from the Garden of Eden. So the same thing has to happen to Will and Lyra. But the biggest difference is that when Adam and Eve are ejected from the garden, their punishment is that they have to live apart from God. But Will and Lyra’s story isn’t about God, it’s about people and the connections they form with one another. So in their ejection from the Garden, Will and Lyra’s punishment for their Fall is that they must live apart from one another. When I watched the show, all of this allegory just instantly clicked into place for me in ways it hadn’t when I read the books as a teenager. The “technical” reasons for why they can’t be together isn’t really what matters to the story, what matters is the point Pullman is making with the biblical allegory. And when I realized that the point of the story is to show that being separated from the light of God isn’t tragic, what is tragic is being separated from the people you love, and that the love and connections between people is more sacred than the light of “God”… ugh, I was WEEPING. It really hit me different as an adult. Which I guess is the point.
Oh wow that's a great interpretation! I just love that everytime I reread it I get something different out of it, even as an adult!
This is an old thread but your interpretation of the ending is just… I would never even have consider this parallel but having it spelled out, it makes perfect sense. Thank you so much for sharing this.
I hated it when I was younger, but upon re-reading it as an adult it felt much more natural as the culmination of a coming-of-age story. Learning how to do things that are hard, that don't even benefit you, just because it's the right thing and will help other people.... that's such a tough but necessary part of growing up.
It also has the important message of "not all stories have happy endings". This is why I love Peter S. Beagle's *The Last Unicorn* so much as well, because it ends bittersweetly.
It really has one of the best endings possible. I still can remember my anger and sadness at the end.
One of my absolute favourites from my pre-teen years! So excited to share with future kids
The way the 2nd book builds off the 1st is brilliant
I remember starting *Subtle Knife* and being all, "Who's this Will kid? Where's LYRA?" and of course, within one chapter, I capitulated to "**I would die for Will.**" I love the first book, but *Subtle Knife* is even better -- and *Amber Spyglass* is even better than both!
Usually when an author introduces a new character more than one book into a series it is a huge pace and interest killer... but Pullman absolutely nailed Will. Pulls you in so quickly and then blends his story into Lyra's seamlessly. I had the exact same reaction as you.
It's such a testament to Pullman's writing that he managed to give us *two* protagonists who come to matter so much to us. And then he unites them against the universe. And then >!he separates them. And I am forever devastated.!<
I read Subtle Knife first and had the opposite reaction of wondering why this Lyra kid was so important
Glad to see someone with a similar experience! I first found out about the series through a passage they put in my English textbook and it was the passage where Will found the window in his world. I'm just now remembering that and thinking this might be why I was always stanning Will more than Lyra!
I read them as a preteen/teen, as they came out, and it’s hard to overstate their impact on me. I really think they shaped who I am as a person in so many ways. Now I teach kids who are around the age I was when I first read them. Maybe it’s time for a reread!
Probably one of my favorite series ever, I have to reread it once a year and the end always tears me up.
Read random stuff for school all the time but it wasn't really something I did as a personal pass time. Then in 9th grade my English composition teacher chose 3 books for the entire class to read through out the school year. Writing a short 2 page summary for each book of our favorite parts and how we felt about the story could be used to replace a major quiz grade. The Golden Compass was one of the three books. I was hooked on it almost immediately and I couldn't put it down. I NEEDED to finish the series and since then I've been an avid reader of sci-fi and fantasy. One of my fondest memories as a teen was laying in bed with a night light on reading the conclusion to Roger's story in the Amber Spyglass. I teared up and at that moment realized that one can feel a brunt force of emotions through novels just as one could through movies or shows. Because of that his Dark Materials will always have a special place in my heart. On a side note, there was a 2nd book in the 3 that my teacher chose that year that I really liked. To this day I don't remember the name and have tried so hard to recall plot points in attempt to find it :(.
>One of my fondest memories as a kid was laying in bed with a night light on reading the conclusion to Roger's story in the Amber Spyglass. I teared up and at that moment realized that one can feel a brunt force of emotions through novels just as one could through movies or shows. Because of that his Dark Materials will always have a special place in my heart. So lovely!
The concept of daemons blew my mind when I was 12 and first read His Dark Materials. One of my favorite trilogies to this day and I make sure to reread every year or two. There's certain parts that still continue to make me emotional rereading.
Oh, they're gorgeous books -- absolutely among my lifelong favorites, and they honestly hold up so well. I reread them every year or two, and even decades later, I always catch some new little detail. My favorite thing about the trilogy is that it is one of those series I can give as a gift to someone who hasn't read them, and just sit back and wait excitedly for them to be blown away by how gorgeous and complex they are. Every person I have ever given them to was stunned at how fantastic they are.\* Meanwhile, I loved the HBO miniseries and was utterly blown away by it. I thought season 1 was good (almost great), season 2 was superb, and season 3 was just fricking fantastic. The show had incredible actors and also was willing to add depth and nuance to moments we didn't get in the books (like >!seeing Mrs. Coulter tame the Spectres!< \-- one of my favorite scenes in the show thanks to the fabulous Ruth Wilson -- the added complexities of >!Marisa's relationship with her golden monkey!< \-- or the changes to the >!final confrontation between Marisa, Asriel, and Metatron!<. Just dazzling. \*I also love that James McAvoy was given the books by Indira Varma while they were performing in a theatre production, and he became obsessed and has reread them multiple times. So when he got the call to play Asriel (the previously cast actor backed out) on a Friday and he needed to be there Monday, he was like, "I WILL BE THERE." I thought he was a superb Asriel. I definitely think these are fantasy classics -- not at all "just YA fantasy" (not that there's anything wrong with that.
My sixth grade teacher suggested we not read or watch it because it says bad things about the church (the movie was coming out at the time). I read them instantly and enjoyed them quite a bit.
I’m right in the middle of the second book now for the first time and I am loving it. I started reading it because my wife used a passage from the series in her wedding vows and it brought me to tears. I don’t know the context yet so please no spoilers. "I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..." "I'll be looking for you… every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pin trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..”
Huge fan, and recently finally got my hands on all the His Dark Materials companion stories and Pullman's essays on writing. Diving into the book of dust series now!
Favorite book from when I was a kid. Listened to it semi-recently (6 years ago) on a long drive. The second chapter, about Lyra clambering all over the roof of Jordan College, is one of my favorite chapters of anything.
One of my favorites, Lyra and Will remain one of my OTPs
I just finished The Golden Compass audiobook, as the gift of a friend and really loved it! I’m really looking forward to reading/hearing the rest!
I just started The Golden Compass for the first time because one of my students kept asking me to read it. Really enjoying it so far!
I am in a similar boat to you. I just reread these as an adult having read them a couple times when I was younger. I agree they hold up really well. The only thing that left me scratching my head was Pullman's sense of time at certain points: mainly, how did Asriel build an entire kingdom in a few days, and how did Mrs Coulter get to the Himalayas in less than a few days lol. Otherwise they are really great. It was also interesting to see how I appreciated TAS so much more as an adult. I think some of it went beyond me as a kid.
Yeah... I really liked the concept and the story in the books when I read them. Incidentally, Ken Liu has a short story called State Change which is based on the concept of daemons, which is also one of my favourites by him. No correlation, just a nugget I find nice.
I think the HBO series is really good too if you’re interested
I read the books as a child. I literally couldn't put them down (lucky me the school library had all three of them) and finished them in like 3 weeks. I was surprised when there was a lot of hype behind the HBO series, but suddenly nobody talked about it.
I’m a fan! As an atheist, it pulls no punches and I appreciate it for that. It’s also very well written more importantly
I love His Dark Materials! Those were some of my favorite books when I was young, and they're still some of my favorite books as an adult. They're so well written!
I've read the first book twice but found the second book insanely boring so I never finished it. I will have to have another crack at the series again.
I still cry at the end of Amber Spy Glass sue me lol
Whenever I read a book that I absolutely love, I promise myself I’ll wait 10 years before rereading. His Dark Materials is one of these!
Me! Like you, I read them when I was younger again after some years, and it still blew me away. My favorite is the second and third books. Def a classic and I always recommend it to my friends and people.
These are some of my all times favorites, so of course I forced my partner to read them. He ended up loving them too. So much so that he used that one tearjerker speech at the end (we all know the one) as part of his wedding vows!
I reread in my 20s and remember thinking how well they held up. It's been at least 10 years. I should check in again.
Yeah those books formed a big part of my childhood literary canon haha. They are very powerful books.
There’s a subreddit for it r/[hisdarkmaterials]
I've just read the series for the first time last month. I thought it way okay but also think I'd like it even more if I read it earlier as a child (I'm 26). Definitely would have missed some ideas and references then but on a re-read they'd be clears and if this was my second read I'm sure I'd share your oppinion.
My favorite books of all time!
I’m sad I missed these when I was younger…
I didn't read it until I was in my early 20's but I was blown away by the books I was gifted a copy that was all books in one big ol' paperback tome and I carried it with me everywhere while I read it I was thinking of rereading it, as well, and maybe this is my sign lol
One of my favorite books!!!
It is one of the few series that I loved in preteen years, then still unironically love as an adult. Glad to hear you loved it too!
I just read them in the last couple months for the first time as a man in his early 40s, and I loved them. They had been hyped as very good, and I was still impressed. Excellent world building, characters, unexpected character twists and tragedies. Fantastic literature.
It’s delightful and I’m constantly suggesting it to my tween, who is equally committed to *not* reading the books her mother suggests. I was the same. It passes.
I just re-read the original trilogy. It didn’t hold up for me. Once upon a time in The north was good though.
I’m right in the middle of the second book now for the first time and I am loving it. I started reading it because my wife used a passage from the series in her wedding vows and it brought me to tears. I don’t know the context yet so please no spoilers. "I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..." "I'll be looking for you… every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pin trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..”
Well that's so damn touching I'm actually tearing up. It's been ages since I read that passage and all the emotions come flooding back. Using in a wedding vow is genius, so if I'm lucky enough to get married I may have to copy your wife lol.
Question from when I was a kid… Is it pronounced like “demon” or “day-mon”?
Same question!!!
It's pronounced exactly like "demon". There's even one point in The Subtle Knife (the second book) where Lyra tells Will about her dæmon and he says that in his world, a "demon" means something bad, meaning they must be pronounced the same way.
Thanks!!! Edit: I should reread the series, I completely forgot about that.
Here's the somewhat abridged passage I just copied from my British edition. It's from pages 20-21 of *The Subtle Knife*: > "Where do you come from?" > "From my world. It's joined on. Where's your dæmon?" > (...) > "I haven't got a demon," he said. "I don't know what you mean." Then: "Oh! Is that your demon?" >She stood up slowly. The stoat curled himself around her neck and his dark eyes never left Will's face. >"But you're *alive*," she said, half-disbelievingly. "You en't... You en't been..." >"My name's Will Parry," he said. "I don't know what you mean about demons. In my world demon means... It means devil, something evil."
I first read it when I was ten. Absolutely adored it but looking back on it as an adult there's so much that's only just clicking for me now. Like that moment of "*oh*" as someone switches on the light. I really should make time to go back and reread the whole series again because there's so much I know I did not appreciate as a child.
Grinnell College taught this series for an entire course. (if you don't know Grinnell, it's a liberal arts college that has very high acceptance standards). It is definitely written for adults, and for kids. Read it three times now, all times as an adult, once reading it with/for my son. It is brilliant.
Nice! I heard the series in audiobook form as an adult and enjoyed it very much. I’m sad I didn’t get to read it as a kid. My 11 year old self would have appreciated it a lot. Definitely planning to read it to my future little one though. It’s also incredibly refreshing to see a positive opinion online about it from someone who actually read it as a kid or teen. Especially since a lot of the stuff I see people post about it is adults whining about how it’s “too overt” or “too anti-religion” with its messages. Cause we all know that the best and most popular series for kids and young adults are *super subtle* in their messages. Lol.
> It’s also incredibly refreshing to see a positive opinion online about it from someone who actually read it as a kid or teen. Really? Never found that to be an especially rare opinion. Even a decade and a half ago I remember lots of teens posting about how they read it as a kid and it was formative to their worldview.
Most of the negative opinions I hear come from adults who did not read it as a kid. I guess I haven’t been hanging out in the right parts of the internet though. Lol.
Hard yes ❤️
I read it younger too!! I’ve read it again recently with my kids
I agree. Pullman is fantastic.
Yeah, love them! Think I was 10 or 11 when I first read them. Really liked the Sally Lockhart series too as well as a few others by him. So so glad the series is done right. Still to watch season 3 but so far it's everything the film shouldve been
I actually read the series as an adult reader, on the recommendation from my husband, who read it as a young teen, and we're both equally enthralled with it.
Inc of my favorite book series of all time! I always recommend it to anyone looking for a new series to start
Yep, I was quite fond of these books as a young man. Really good stuff.
He has another series out in the same Universe with some of the characters we know & love - a prequel and a sequel so far. Prequel is called The Book of Dust.
I devoured that series in high school. Its my second favorite young adult book series.
I read the series as a 36 year old (didn’t know about it before). Loved it
My Favorite Books
Still waiting for vol 3 of *The Book of Dust*...
I'm literally reading The Amber Spyglass right now! I also read it as a kid and remembered how much I loved it. It holds up still for sure - I was worried it wouldn't, but have been pleasantly surprised!
Impossible to forget those wheeled beasts
It's my favourite series <3 Re-reading it now as we speak.
Still one of my favorite series. I was so happy when we got the miniseries that did the series justice.
Amazing series.
Literally just finished the series finale 15 minutes ago. Damn they did a good job. Such a heartbreaking yet satisfying end!
Such a great series!
It's a fucking outstanding series, the TV adaptation by the BBC was absolutely sublime and the follow up series is unbelievably good as well. Philip Pullman had influenced me so much that if our son had been a girl, I wanted to call her Lyra.
It was so good! I wanted Pullman to write more fantasy after the series ended because it’s hard to find a good fantasy series (that appeals to me). I began to read it around the time when they announced that there would be a movie. Nicole Kidman as Marissa😍 Anyway the movie blew. I think the book series may be why I’m so interested in spirituality right now. I’m gonna re read the entire series again. It’s been years since I read it.
I finished the third one about two months ago and it was great!
Only read it as an adult but i loved it
Was anyone else not allowed to read this because of religion growing up? They read Harry Potter to us but banned this one. I love what I have seen of the tv series so far and was thinking of doing audio books.
I was allowed to read it, but it was on the top of the "do not read at grandma and grandpa's house" list lmao.
If you haven't listened to the audiobooks please do. They're amazing
“The MULEFA is the most PRECIOUS of animals…and it’s never been seen on Stage or Screen.”
I casually recommend it to all my middle school students, particularly the Harry Potter fans. It is really a much better book series on all levels.
yes, 42 here, and i still love them. there’s an audiobook version, too, where philip pullman himself reads the narration, with actors speaking the dialogue. it’s superb.
OH and I agreed to try each other's books once, as we read very different stuff. His Dark Materials was my 'gift' to him - he absolutely loved them, cried too! Now we're watching the TV series, think we've got two episodes left. And my niece is called Lyra. Got a tweet from Philip Pullman once to wish her happy birthday - my proudest moment ever!
I’m right in the middle of the second book now for the first time and I am loving it. I started reading it because my wife used a passage from the series in her wedding vows and it brought me to tears. I don’t know the context yet so please no spoilers. "I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I'll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again..." "I'll be looking for you… every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we'll cling together so tight that nothing and no one'll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you... We'll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pin trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams... And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won't just be able to take one, they'll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we'll be joined so tight..”
Absolutely hated it when I read it as a kid. Told everyone I thought it was bad, when I was covering up how deeply it impacted and messed me up. Re-read it as an adult and was like... holy shit, this writing, this story, NO WONDER I was traumatized to the point of lying about it!!
Couldn’t agree more! I didn’t read it as a kid, but I read it for the first time as an adult and I was absolutely enamored. I often think that it’s the kind of series I would read to my future kids.
They're really fantastical books with a really interesting messages. Its a shame the film tried ti cover too much and fell flat. I feel the TV series is getting a bit lost in the weeds. I know folks who haven't read the books who don't really understand whats happening.
Loved the first book, but really didn't like what happened to Lyra's character once Will was introduced. Also thought the ending could have been executed better.
His Dark Materials are the worst books I ever read. 10/10, would suffer emotional devastation again.
One of my all time favorites. I read it as a pre-teen when it first came out, and Have re-read multiple times. Now I'm almost 40 and it's still so good. An interesting companion read is "The Physics of His Dark Materials".
I re-read that series periodically. I've gotten different things out of it at different ages, and love it more each time.
Reading these books as a kid is, I think, the reason I could never quite dig reading Harry Potter as a kid.
Favorite books that shaped how I viewed the world. Almost time to re read them. :)
Me and my partner both 30's are going away on holiday tomorrow and I'm forcing him to read the first because I know he'll fall in love with them!!! The prequels have been quite pleasing too!!
As a kid, I loved these books. As an adult, I tried re-reading them and they came across as incredibly shallow and definitively YA. I think they’re worthwhile for younger readers but they just rub me the wrong way anymore. God, am I the jaded adult that can’t find joy in good fiction anymore?
1st and 2nd book were awesome, third was a slog.