theblackdog

This is one of those stories that reminds me of an episode of Are You Afraid of the Dark? except it wouldn't fit into a 24 minute show. This would need to be several episodes.

Harvey is an easy character to connect with. Haven't we all been that 10 year old kid in February who hates the dreary gray days of winter and it is going to be forever before spring break gets here? Once you hear of an opportunity to do something fun, you're going to jump all over it, even if you don't realize there is a catch until much later.

It was hard for me to put this book down once I started, though it's a short read. There are a few elements of horror but nothing overly scary, and thankfully Barker did not only use a trope of “the power of love” as the way for the evil to be defeated. It is more of seeking actual justice and exposing what is really going on.

Still, the Holiday House sounds like a fun place to visit. At least until you learn the price of your stay.

I remember all of the hype around the movie and I started to read this book years ago but never got through it. Now with a little more time and understanding I can appreciate it better.

Lyra is a well written character. It's too bad I can't say the same about her uncle (Lord Asriel). You think he's an honorable guy, but really he turns out to be a jerk with his own agenda. Mrs. Coulter shows some vulnerability towards the end but it is clear where her alliances lie.

I do like the witches and the gyptians. They help keep the flow of the story gong and make some of the scenes more exciting. I think Pullman mught have used the witches a bit better towards the end of the book because they started to become the ones to swoop in and save Lyra when she got in trouble.

The ending is not going to be satisfying, only because it was clearly written to be a series. There are plenty of questions left for the reader, including the nature of Dust and why everyone is so afraid of it. Actually in writing this I now have a guess about Lord Asriel's motivations. I will see if I am right in the future books.

Its a good read, hopefully the next books are just as good.

The book doesn't quite suffer from being boring because now all the initial action happened in the first book, but events must be set up for the third book so nothing happens here. However, it does seem like Lyra was dumbed down because she makes some decisions that I don't think she would have made. I never understood why she actually bothers to get in the car with Sir Charles, who randomly spoke to her at the museum. Yes, I get it she was running from the “police” and may have thought she wanted to get away but she wasn't that trusting of people in The Golden Compass. That's another thing; there are two guys specifically after Will and the letters from his father, and then they just kind of vanish after they almost catch Lyra at Oxford. It seems like they were working for Mrs. Coulter or Sir Charles, so I would have expected to see them show up in one of the other worlds. Also how does Mrs. Coulter suddenly have such a command of the specters that she can make them do things that they never did before? They did not take to the air until “she made them forget they were bound to the earth” and now they can conveniently attack the witches? That seems to be lazy way of creating a new problem for characters who didn't have to face the a problem before.

Pullman also seems to like killing characters once their “task” is done, and it feels a bit unnecessary. Scoresby leads Grumman to a mountain to meet with the knife bearer, now let's kill him. Grumman meets Will and helps him, oops, time to die now. At least the death of Sir Charles actually fits the plot and most of the character motivations.

Here's hoping the third book is better.

Oh, my heart. A romance that has a well crafted B plot and the realistic awkwardness between two folks who were supposed to meet, life went horribly wrong, but now there’s a potential second chance. This hit all the right parts. Additionally the sex scenes nailed it. The initial hesitation, actually working up to certain acts and the descriptions and dirty talk that didn’t feel like a broken record. This was so fun to read.

A great fantasy story involving dealing with various fey creatures and a thin place in the world. It’s a good establishing book to start a series and it’s clearly meant to be that. We learn much about Veris, but other characters have a mostly superficial development. If there’s a sequel I expect we will get a lot more development about Eleonor. The Tyrant is who he is and as for Aram, you’ll have to read to find out.