BiblioAddict

On way back yonder, Hollywood’s cahounas, and young adult novels for adults:

Way back yonder in 2007 I read the first book in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials Trilogy, The Golden Compass (a.k.a. Northern Lights).  Mostly I read it out of curiosity because of the hoopla surrounding the imminent release of the movie. You remember that don’t you? The fundamentalist Christians picketing, the glamor of Daniel Craig and Nicole Kidman in the same movie, and the burning question on everyone’s mind: will they go there?  Does Hollywood really have the cahounas to take it there?  (Short answer: Of course not.)

I really had only the vaguest idea of what “there” meant before I started reading the series.  Something “anti-Christian” about killing God, was all I heard.  After I  finished the first book I still had only a vague idea – not enough of one to see what all the furor was about.  (Not to say that The Golden Compass wasn’t amazing, because it was.  So much so that the movie was a travesty.  A god-awful travesty).  After reading The Subtle Knife, however, suddenly a great number of pieces begin to fall in place with a great big “ohhhhh.”

The Subtle Knife tells the story of Will, a headstrong, independent boy from our own world who sets out on a mission to find his missing father and to save his harassed mother.  Soon after he begins his journey, he discovers a doorway into another world where he meets Lyra, the heroine from the previous book.  The two set out to help each other in their separate missions only to find that their missions are one and the same.

I adored The Subtle Knife.  Will’s character was incredibly compelling for such a young protagonist.  And there was one scene near the end of the book that I reread over and over again for all its heartbreaking tragedy (if you’ve read it, you probably know what I’m talking about).  Yet, I wonder what sophisticated “young adult” reader Pullman had in mind when he wrote this series, because even if you overlook the metaphorical meaning of the story, the story itself may be some rather heavy stuff for a ten year old.

On the other hand, one of my qualms with Neil Gaiman’s Coraline was that I never suspected for one second that Coraline was in any real danger.  Lyra and Will, however, seem to face danger around every corner.  Often the very people who should be protecting them are the very ones they must watch out for.  Even children their own age come after them with guns and knives.  Plus, Pullman seems to have no qualms whatsoever about killing off main characters (the death of one main character really caught me off guard).

Two books into this series and I can already tell that Pullman has done something particularly special here.  And that’s just the story; I’ll tackle the metaphorical aspects of the series after I’ve completed it.  One thing is for sure, though: After seeing just how special this series really is and just how much havoc Hollywood has the potential to wreck, I’d much rather they left well-enough alone.  If they can’t do it right, they shouldn’t do it at all.  For the moment, it appears as if the sequel to “The Golden Compass” is dead.  Good, I say.  Keep it that way.

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers / Sept. 2002 (1997)
$11.95 / 352 pps