ingrid

I bought the trilogy as a Christmas gift for myself and now I'm not so sure it was a good investment.

Don't get me wrong, the "Golden Compass" is a good, maybe great, fantasy book, but there was so much that personally irritated me (oh taste, how subjective thou art) I'll need to sit and think about whether I was made uncomfortable in the good way or annoyed legitimately.

The child heroine, Lyra, is problematic in so many ways. She ignorant, arrogant, and so lacking in introspection of any kind, it makes me wonder if she's not borderline mentally challenged or if Pullman just doesn't like writing about emotional issues, so he made his character not care much about those either. After every twist, every revelation (even the horrific ending, up to to a point), we're told -- not shown, because I guess that would take too long -- that Lyra's pulling a Scarlett O'Hara and "not thinking about it today" -- even when she's stuck in some dark place and has a ton of time on her hands -- and the effect is ... sorry ... lame.

You knew, because you were shown, Mitchell's Scarlett was thinking about these things deep down and thinking about them as if her soul was on fire, but Lyra? You end up buying early on that she's emotionally stunted on the most basic level leaving every feeling after that to ring false or humorously out-of-character. By the time she's honestly crying (again, her pain is told, not shown) you'd think she has allergies, not any kind of honest epiphany or remorse.

I don't think I like her very much, at least not enough to follow her to the end of the world and if that's the case, it's the book fatal flaw.

Other things I made the Screwy Face of WTF at:

Her weird quasi-sexual "love" for Iorek the bear. Dude, I don't squick easily, but ... BRAIN BLEACH. SCRUB, SCRUB, SCRUB. The descriptors Pullman used were so inappropriate I wondered if he'd either had a stroke and didn't know what he was writing or if he was quite sure and he needs to be dipped in a vat of mayo and thrown to real bears. So creepy.

Dialogue written in dialect ... sometimes. OMG, WTF? Thanks Pullman for giving badfic writers really bad ideas that they can now point to as "professional" grade writing Not only that, but the dialect is ugly and makes Lyra (and her poor daemon, Pan, who is the only character I loved) sound even dumber than they act. And it's not even consistent! WHY?

That sure was some clumsy foreshadowing from five or six characters throughout the book. Gee, what ironic cosmic slap is waiting for Lyra on the last five pages? Hmmm, could it have something to do with her ENTIRE SELF-IMPOSED MISSION? And her cruel parents? And some sucker she thinks she's saving? Hmmm ... COULD IT?

The daemons are a very cool idea and by the time I get to the maid running off carrying her hen, I was so tired of them I wished they'd all be severed and tossed into a zoo. Especially when Pullman insinuates that while humans have sex, the deamons are doing horribly inappropriate cross-species things as well. Yes, my brain went there on its own, no need to confirm my worst fears, author. YUCK. (But Pan is still love.)

Stuff I liked:

The world building was clever as all hell. A not-Earth with shades of history we know and creatures we dream of, taken for granted. The witches were fantastic and exactly right, subtle and perfect. The daemons were a difficult task to pull off and he does, sort of. (I got tired of them about 3/4's through but that's because there were so many characters all I kept seeing was a great zoo escape in every scene.)

The gyptains were the best part. Once they disappeared (died?) everything turned to meh.

Mrs. Coulter was perfection. Her awful, awful lover was not. In fact, he's a villain of the deepest kind, evil *and* needlessly cruel. BLAH. Poor Lyra, even her numb dumb ass doesn't deserve *that* guy as a father. He should have gotten his ironic comeuppance, with Lyra coming to him as his sacrifice. I think that would have been the more interesting ending.

Speaking of the ending, I heard they left that out of the movie. That's ... that's ... impossible. No really, without the ending, there is nothing. No meaning, no point, nothing, although I can see how Hollywood would really despise showing it. Unlike Boromir's sad death that ended the first installment of LoTR, this one is just cruel and depressing on all levels, not heroic at all, but it's absolutely necessary for the story. How did Pullman allow them to do that? Is he dead or something?

There's probably other stuff, but that's off the top of my head. I suppose I'll read "The Subtle Knife" but after the holidays. I have no burning need to go there now.