No elsewhere?

[dolorosa_12]

This is the second of my January talking meme posts. I was asked to talk about the new Philip Pullman books in the Book of Dust trilogy, for nyctanthes.

The first such book — La Belle Sauvage, a prequel, in terms of content and chronology, to the original His Dark Materials trilogy — was very much to my taste. I was so relieved that it was published at all, and that it was well written, and showed off Pullman's strengths — a vivid sense of place, gorgeous prose that danced on the page, and a rolicking, page-turning plot. I was full of gratitude and emotion, and delighted in celebrating the book with all my friends I'd made through the Philip Pullman forum that was my first experience of online fandom.

Sadly, I did not enjoy The Secret Commonwealth, the second book in the new trilogy — the first one to pick up Lyra's story after she's reached adulthood (save the brief glimpse we got of her as a teenager in Lyra's Oxford). It did things I disliked to Lyra's character, and unfortunately made me reassess my previous opinion of Philip Pullman as one of the few male authors who were able to write female characters well. Oddly, I disliked the book more and more the more I thought about it after I had finished reading it. I had finished it off thinking it was solid, but not Pullman's best work, but the more and more I contemplated several narrative and characterisation choices (and discussed these elements in verbose Twitter DMs with McDougallSophia), the more I revised my initial opinion to something much more negative. It hasn't tainted my opinion of the original trilogy, which I still maintain is an absolutely extraordinary work of literature, but it does make me more cautious about reading every work that Pullman puts out into the universe and assuming it will be fantastic.

I've still got slots open for prompts for the January talking meme. You can leave prompts here.

Comments

[luzula]

I am most of the way through this book (listened to as a wonderful audiobook by Michael Sheen), but was distracted by other fannishness and haven't quite finished it yet. I am annoyed by the upcoming romance--seriously, first you see him taking care of her as a baby and then he's her teacher in her teens, and then they get together?? /o\ /o\ I actually found the ideas about mental health isses as expressed through conflicts between a human and their daemon to be pretty interesting, but it's also frustrating how it changed Lyra's character.

[dolorosa_12]

I agree with you 100 per cent on the romance — I found it really squicky, particularly the fact that he knew her as a baby, which is a particular dislike of mine.

I wouldn't have minded those ideas being explored, but not through Lyra herself. One of the things I liked so much about her in the original trilogy was how confident and brave she was, and how little made her vulnerable (although I suppose leaving Pan behind in the world of the dead was the first thing that really made her vulnerable). I don't object to a story in which she had relatively little power, I guess I object to the ways Pullman chose to render her powerless.