BINGO: TBR, even though it’s relatively recent, because for how excited I was for the launch it’s shockingly long before I actually forced myself to sit down and read this thing
Maybe I will change the review for this when I’ve calmed down but for now WE RIDE AS WITCHES, perfectly serene and passionate and unbothered by the vagaries of humankind.
What a fantastic reminder that there’s a reason why we shouldn’t revisit our faves.
His Dark Materials, consisting as it does to this American of The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass, is truly one of my great literary loves. The squabbles that people have over pacing aside–hilarious in light of this 672 page behemoth–they form a tightly paced and plotted trilogy over which we see our main character, the irrepressible Lyra Belaqua, truly grow and evolve as she sets about fulfilling an age old prophecy about the nature of human consciousness and purpose and meaning on this dusty (heh) ball of dirt we all call home. When you finally learn the interlocking nature of Dust (it’s created by humans being creative and gaining knowledge and being conscious > it’s escaping through the windows that were created wantonly between worlds by both the knife bearer of Cittagazze + existing naturally > all the windows must be closed except for the one that lets the dead escape and become one with the universe > so Will and Lyra must be separated) you realize with a sinking feeling that there is no other answer, no other logical conclusion from all the bits and pieces you’ve learnt along the way.
And then for some reason we decide to just throw all that way, lock stock and smoking barrel, for a confusing psychology diatribe on par with what you’d expect from a newly minted sophomore socialist who just took Ec 101 and Psych 101 and is accosting you with facts about the rise of capitalism and the tragedy of the commons and reposting bad Instagram stories.
In no particular order, plot points that are never revisited despite there being more than enough pages to address them all:
– refugees?
– spangled ring?
– what is the Rose Field?
– is separation normal? not normal?
– does anyone at all remember anything that happened in the last war?
– does dust go out of windows or not?
– Lyra and Pan’s need to talk through their issues
– where are the bears?
– why didn’t Lyra continue to chat with Serafina if she loved her so much
– the magical heron that blew up the zepplin, was that Lyra?
– where was oakley street during HDM?
– did no one notice the many windows in their world being closed up starting ~10 years ago?
– did no one else ever come across windows?
– why did the angels miss those windows?
– are the angels lying? telling the truth? are they no longer part of the magisterium?
– where are all the supernatural forces aligned both with and without the magisterium?
AND THEN MORE things I’m just angry about:
– why do we need roses when there’s already dust to serve as a plot metaphor for consciousness/imagination/goodness
– why is this book SO LONG and we still get random characters introduced for five pages just to do a plot detail dump and then disappear?
– these resonant lodestones are such lazy storytelling as a device, but so is not using them to let Lyra and Pan talk to one another whilst separated
– WHY so many justifications of how Malcolm x Lyra isn’t a creepy romance subplot given that Malcolm rescued Lyra as a baby and then was her teacher and caught a whiff of her hair and fell in love and then so bravely turned it off (like a liiiiiight switch)? methinks many people told Pullman that no one cared for the subplot and he was like WATCH ME
– where were these deus ex machina gryphons last time?
– why invent new types of carrion-y birds when cliff ghasts are already a thing?
– Serafina Pekkala had a daughter with Farder Coram and never told him? what a weirdly sociopathic thing to do?
– Is there really a Cho Chang-esque Chinese character named Chen who speaks broken English and is basically a sketch who attempts to surreptitiously take over a research station and then sell it to the highest bidder without having the right of ownership (yes)
– is it really important to have everyone speak different languages if someone in our main group of characters always speaks some language that’s close enough?
UGH I just can’t with this book, hard pass, if you can just skip this entire second series and leave your memories of the OG untainted.
