I finally got around to reading His Dark Materials, which is a book series that my girlfriend thought I would like, and thus recommended to me something like 8 years ago. Well it took some time, but I finally read it. Actually, I listened to the first two books and then read the third one while my computer was unplugged and I wasn’t able to access the third audiobook.
Let me first speak about the audio recording. It was a full cast recording, which meant that they used multiple narrators to voice the different characters. It is interesting when they do this, because it definitely adds a “radio play” feel to things, but if it isn’t paced right it can make things sound really severe. The transitions between Philip Pullman’s narration and the interjections of the characters’ dialogue was so tightly edited that it felt like they were interrupting the poor bastard. That being said, it was still very engaging and well played.
There isn’t much I could say about the series that probably hasn’t already been said. So I’ll just list off some of the aspects that I really enjoyed.
1. I enjoyed the evolution/devolution of Lyra throughout the series. I really enjoyed how she went from being Lyra Silvertounge who can trick the untrickable armored bears to not being able to convincingly lie to anyone without getting caught. Is it because the people she was trying to trick knew of her devious ways? Or was she just dealing with so many adults that were too cynical to be able to even trust a child?
2. Will was fantastic. From the moment he appeared he was so drastically different than Lyra that he became a perfect compliment to her. On the one hand we had this fiercely independent girl with no desire to know or find her parents-parents who are both completely terrible in their own way, and on the other hand we have this boy who not only loves and needs his mother, but has such a strong desire to find his father that he’s willing to risk everything to get to him. This difference also illustrates how different people are in general between the two worlds. Sure there is love and companionship in Lyra’s world, but the people there seem so singular, like they’re all trapped in their own personal bubbles.
3. The ending is a little anticlimactic, but I don’t really know what other way they could have ended it. It was kind of bittersweet, which is fine. A happy ending wouldn’t have tasted right
I really don’t know what else to say. That’s probably all I have for now. All I know is I read the whole third book in one day because I didn’t want to put it down.
