Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Northern Lights

By Philip Pullman

This one was recommended to me several times by various people over the course of the last few years and I finally got around to reading it. Its the first book in a trilogy and I'm starting on the second one now. The tilogy is called 'His Dark materials' but I've yet to discover why, or even who 'he' is. The first book was about a young girl and her daemon.

The premise of the book is interesting, but I found it lacking. Its meant to be steam punk, or something similar, but essentially its just CS Lewis in modern garb. Compared to a book like 'Perdido Street Station', its incredibly blue eyed and simplistic though its obviously written for children (despite its being classed as for young adults) so maybe thats just as well.


I'd certainly recommend it to any one who wasn't looking for anything but light entertainment.
3/5

5 comments:

Cyan said...

I liked it, but I don't really see much steampunk connection either. I suppose that some of the gadgetry can fit into that category, and there is that whole pseudo-19th century bit.

I liked the concept of the daemons. I want one.

moif said...

So, what form do you suppose your daemon would take?

Cyan said...

Probably a sloth...heh

marinergrim said...

If you read the entire trilogy a lot of the events in the first novel make sense. The plot does take several twists on the way and some of the things that happen are quite harrowing.

A good work and a read I enjoy.

moif said...

I'll be lending them to my Mother. I think she'll love them. They're exactly the sort of thing she likes!