The Golden Compass

Alright, I am not the world's biggest fan of His Dark Materials, as most of my readers will know if they have read my book club postings. I know Philip Pullman is supposed to be some kind of genius and that these books have been voted as the best fantasy in seventy years, but I found them pretty hard to get into.

That said, I absolutely love the world that Pullman created...it's gorgeous. His concepts, from souls that take animal form and reside outside the human body to armoured bears that roam the far north, are simply amazing. I also found his characters to be both realistic and likeable. (Oh, and the heroine's a girl...and there's more than one strong female character in the book...in fact, there's many!) The main difficulty I had with the books was that they were so dense, layers and layers of words, and I found some of the religious themes to be a bit overbearing for my taste. However, with the wordiness removed and many of the subtexts stripped bare, leaving a world that is visually stunning and an overriding theme that is heart-stopping...

I expect to LOVE this movie. I may be first in line for tickets, babysitting notwithstanding, just to see the armoured bear.

And thank you, Philip Pullman for creating Lyra's universe...who knows...the books may get better with re-reading. Chronicles of Narnia and Lord of the Rings did.