bookview: golden compass and the subtle knife

My friend Jen told me that I should read the Golden Compass and the rest of the trilogy of His Dark Materials written by Phillip Pullman. It took a little bit, like most books, to really get into it, but once I had read the first couple chapters I knew this was going to be a fun and exciting ride.

I enjoyed the Golden Compass (or Northern Lights as it was previously called) all the way from opening page through to the end, and it had me excited to begin the second.  There is dramatic character development, as well as lots of interesting and exciting action with definite plot twists along the way. Definitely a great start.

The subtle knife started out not directly where the first leaves off, but rather begins the tale of another child named Will. Quickly the storyline comes in sync with the first, and the exciting journey is whisked off to another world (literally). The story quickly builds to an even greater level in this book, but unfortunately for me is a sort of "to be continued" ending, and thus I now have the need to find time to finish the last book of the trilogy.

Overall the reasons I love this story are many. I love the incredibly interesting scientific and theological undertones and overtones that this series revolves around the soul, dark matter, and multiple parallel universes. The writer has a great ability to write for kids on the surface, while giving adults the ability to dive deeper into the substance of the content. I also love books where multiple plot paths are taken, thus causing an inherent need to read the next page or chapter.