Derek
This was pretty good but fell short. Pullman's writing - the individual craft of the sentences and the emotional heft he carries - are the strongest parts of the book. He also has a fun sense for set pieces. Some fell flat but I loved the time spent at Jordan College and the research facility.
But I don't think this stacks up to the best YA literature I've come across. Pretty much the whole time I wished I was reading the Earthsea series instead, which I remember having a much richer sense of adventure and evil. The Golden Compass also does not do enough to complicate its orientalist and colonialist elements. And Lyra falls asleep immediately after a major action piece (and sometimes before it has concluded?) about once every 10 pages.
This was pretty good but fell short. Pullman's writing - the individual craft of the sentences and the emotional heft he carries - are the strongest parts of the book. He also has a fun sense for set pieces. Some fell flat but I loved the time spent at Jordan College and the research facility.
But I don't think this stacks up to the best YA literature I've come across. Pretty much the whole time I wished I was reading the Earthsea series instead, which I remember having a much richer sense of adventure and evil. The Golden Compass also does not do enough to complicate its orientalist and colonialist elements. And Lyra falls asleep immediately after a major action piece (and sometimes before it has concluded?) about once every 10 pages.