From: Susan Daugherty <kdaugherty>
Date: Fri, 29 Aug 1997 14:14:27 -0500

I am glad there is someone else out there who doesn't have unqualified praise for the books by Pullman. I haven't read the second one, and I read the first one quite a while ago, but while I enjoyed it quite a bit, I guess I was hoping for a new Tolkien, and I didn't think that was happening. It's hard to remember specifics now, but generally, I thought that in The Golden Compass, he promised more than he delivered, which sounds similar to the comment below about the sequel. I was left with a slightly unsatisfied feeling. Nevertheless, I think that these books are worth recommending to young and old, and I have already done so, and asked for others' opinions.

Susan

At 07:44 AM 8/29/97 00, you wrote: book, I was disappointed with some aspects of The Subtle Knife. Both books share strong opening scenes to draw you in, but the second then seemed overwhelmed by explaining, trying to catch the new reader or one with a poor memory up with the first. The chapters bringing the balloonist and the witches into this other world distracted me from the thrust of Lyra and Will's storyline. Once all the pieces come together, the action picks up pace, racing at the end to ... not exactly a conclusion. That is a question for others - should each book in a set have its own conclusion and to what level is it okay to leave a cliffhanger as in a serialized story? Finally, I felt somewhat that Lyra's (and Pantalaimon's) character went out of focus. I know Pullman kept telling us that Will's will must be done in this book, but Lyra spent too much time on the sidelines for me. This is still an inventive and ambitious series, one that I'd like to talk about - especially in the way that religion is challenged and the confrontation is over the ultimate battle of good versus evil (which tears up these worlds and pulls Lyra so far between her parents). More comments PLEASE.
Received on Fri 29 Aug 1997 02:14:27 PM CDT