![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Random musings on 'His Dark Materials'
The trilogy was a mixed bag for me overall.
There were some bits that I really liked, especially the wheel pod people and the armoured bears, and other bits that didn't work as well. I think overall, I loved the background and didn't care much for the plot.
It's mentioned at one point that it would have been impossible for Lord Asriel to have assembled an army of this size, and this seems a valid concern. However, having mentioned it, the author doesn't then appear (unless I missed it) to explain how he did manage to do it all. The cross-universe stuff seems especially aplicable. Asriel goes to great lengths to tear a breach between the universes, but I've no final understanding of why he did it, or how he utilised it afterwards.
It's interesting to decide who is 'good' and who is 'bad' and of course there are shades of grey all over the place. Was Asriel doing the right thing in his rebellion? He was willing to murder a child in pursuit of his ends.
I was a bit uncertain about the claim that all the evil in the world was due to the Authority. It seemed to me that most of the examples cited were cases of people being able to be perfectly nasty off their own bat. There had been no order on high for the various Oblation boards, etc. to be set up. (the plot point that Metatron intended to take more direct control on the future over Inquisitions and the like has no bearing on the past) Indeed, if the reduction in Dust was the cause of the reduction of many of the better aspects of human nature, then the Authority would appear to be mostly innocent of anything other than lying to the other angels.
The whole Dust thing had me confused for most of the novels - the fact that the characters (esp Asriel) lie about their aims concerning Dust help to confuse the reader even further.
However, I did like the part set in the world of the dead. The idea that the dead could be released by turning back to Dust, so to speak, was one that worked for me and gives a whole new twist to the phrase 'Ashes to ashes, dust to dust'.
Eve and temptation. Took me a while to figure this out as the temptation was not knowledge, but love. Lyra resists the temptation to maintain a window between her world and Will's and thus preserves Dust in the universes. This worked as an ending as the characters had to make a genuinely difficult choice with no deus ex machina to wave a magic wand to reward them at the end.
So, overall I found the books worth reading (and I loved the concept of the alethiometer), but I found the central theme to be a bit muddled.
no subject
no subject
I found the first book fairly readable, but by the time Lyra loses the alethiometer I realised I didn't actually care if she got it back.