His Dark Materials is a trilogy of the following three novels by Philip Pullman:
1. Northern Lights (aka The Golden Compass)
2. The Subtle Knife
3. The Amber Spyglass
I will try to give details while being careful not to put in any spoilers.
His Dark Materials is a fantasy with the Christian history and philosophy in its background. The story considers aspects such as creation, temptation, God (referred to as Authority for specific reason), Church (its roles and actions), angels, heaven, body/spirit/soul etc. The story is more or less a critic of the traditional views of these ideas except for the one of body/spirit/soul.
The central characters in the story are two kids: Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry. There is a prophecy about Lyra that she will change the destiny of the world if things fall in place and if she is unaware of what she will do till she does it. The story takes place in several worlds.
THE BOOKS
Pullman does not appear to be a great writer in terms of his literary skills. Compare His Dark Materials with Gone with the Wind and the former will end up deep down an abyss. The style is very simple and it does not create any enigma, which, for instance, Midnight’s Children creates. Which brings us to the conclusion that there must be something about His Dark Materials that I am writing such a big blog and that all these books have turned out to be the bestsellers. I think that something is the story itself and the storytelling ability of Pullman, the ability to create vivid characters, the sense of disclosing a secret or pulling a turn at the right time and finally the ability to play the fine cords of human emotions.
Northern Lights
Northern Lights is based in a world different from ours, where every human being has a demon of its own. The demon is an animal of sex opposite to the human being it belongs to (generally). The demon does not refer to a devil or so; in fact, it is the soul of the human being, but present outside and it can talk as well.
In fact, these ideas, first seen in the movie The Golden Compass, aroused my interest in these books. Lyra gets an alethiometer – a truth teller, which Lyra uses throughout the story. Other important characters are Mrs. Coulter (works for the Church) and Lord Asriel (aims to end the Authority). On a side note, these are played by Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig and in my opinion, no better actors could have been found for both roles.
Two salient features of Northern Lights are:
1. Lyra is always present in the scene, so basically the story goes where she goes. This is the first time I am reading a book where one character is always present. The trend does not continue in The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. Lyra has a persistent character, she can do all for people she loves and she can lie very well (Lyra and Liar sound quite common, as is outlined in The Amber Spyglass).
2. The aspects of relationship between a human and its demon are revealed slowly in the novel through various events and that is very beautiful. Some such aspects are: human being and his/her demon generally cannot go very far from each other; it is blasphemy of highest order for a human to touch other’s demon or vice-versa etc. Novelists tend to explain many aspects of certain thing or person or relationship as soon as they introduce it but Pullman does it during an ongoing act/scene and as such, intensifies the effect and creates a mark in our memory that we do not forget it.
Northern Lights is very fascinating in terms of the above and also for the superhuman characters which it introduces – bear kings and witches. Northern Lights also made me feel that I should actually go and see Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) some day in my life – the description is just too good.
The novel's end is truly spellbinding beyond expectations or thought and this is one thing I would never understand about the movie The Golden Compass, where they end at ~ 80% of the Northern Lights story and do not show its end at all. The end is really apt as it makes entry into other worlds and thus makes a case for the next book – The Subtle Knife.
The Subtle Knife
The Subtle Knife goes around in three worlds, in a world which is same as ours, in Lyra’s world and in a world different from ours and Lyra’s. The Subtle Knife is smaller than Northern Lights and lacks the charm of concepts that Northern Lights has, but it is really a great foundation for the last book of the trilogy. The book introduces other characters: spectres, angels and shaman (a man who has high level powers of the spirit). Will Parry is introduced and shown as a character with unsurpassable ferocity, though he is only 12 years old or so. He comes from a world like ours. Will and Lyra meet in the third world and become friends and helpers of each other. Mary Malone (the serpent/tempter) is also an important character introduced.
The Amber Spyglass
The Amber Spyglass is really a great culmination for the trilogy. It is also the thickest book of the three and it made me realize that the depth of the story, the characters and their handling are much beyond and better than the famous Potter “heptology”.
The Amber Spyglass introduces other characters - the Gallivespians (the spies), the mulefa (diamond-legged creatures running on wheels) and the dead! All characters from all the three books come together and that makes the novel very intense and action-packed. The novel also introduces the Authority and his regent Metatron, however, the novel’s dealing with these two characters is almost sarcastic. Although the book is about war with the Authority, there is more of human emotion than action and that makes it special. In fact, the war only goes for about 1-2 chapters out of 38 and Pullman does not care enough to discuss the results, although that is obvious! I think that except for 2-3 small things, the novel captures all questions or secrets built up during the course of the story. The only dark spot in the moon is the story that runs in mulefa’s world, which I think could have been swifter.
The novel’s end is very sad and heart-wrenching, which makes it so special again. The end could have been a feel-good end for all, but that would have hardly had any impact compared to its actual end. The end also considers that universal good is more important than personal good.
THE SUBJECT
There is no denying that another reason why the trilogy attracted my attention was its dealing with theological and metaphysical aspects, which it introduces as Dust:
1. Dust connects all the worlds and universes and is shown as golden particles that fill all the space.
2. Dust is what makes us human.
3. Dust is produced and enhanced by human creativity and consciousness (if this is true, readers would [should] find some Dust around this blog!).
4. Dust affects a human through his/her demon.
5. Dust is something which the Church wants to destroy and the more rational beings want to preserve.
Another crucial feature is that Dust does not fall on kids as it does on adults. The books deal further with this aspect and discuss innocence of children vs. maturity of adults, flipping demons of kids vs. stable demons of adults and why Spectres attack adults but not children.
His Dark Materials indicates that something happened 30,000 years ago when human consciousness took a turn and led to Dust. I am not sure if it refers to the temptation of the Eve. The novel also indicates that something happened 300 years ago – creation of the alethiometer and the subtle knife, origin of the Spectres and so on.
The dealing of this subject was a little disappointment to me. I expected a more realistic approach towards the subject and its aspects, but the novel ended up creating a (very beautifully crafted) fictional web around the subject and dealing it from a pure Christianity point of view. I would not blame Pullman as his knowledge or appreciation or acceptance of other religions or theories may not be of the level of Christianity.
My understanding of the novel’s conclusion is that matter is the most important (though soul and spirit too exist), that the Authority is powerful but not the ultimate creator (and there is not Authority) and that this life is the only life to deal with. The fiction deals well to arrive at these conclusions but two things which I think Pullman has been unable to justify are:
1. Acceptance of certain ideas of Christianity such as body/spirit/soul, angels etc. but denial of others such as heaven, temptation etc. purely based on the story’s requirements.
2. How many things happened simultaneously 300 years ago in many worlds to bring the prophecy true, if there were no God behind it?
OVERALL
The books overall have been a very good read and despite my disappointment with dealing of the subject of Dust, the story and the flow are very captivating, the characters very strong and vivid and the fantasy very novel. The handling of many worlds has also been very fine and artful.
Like Gone with the Wind, where I think that Rhett Butler (male protagonist) was stronger than Scarlett O’Hara (female protagonist), whereas the novel was about the latter, I would consider that the portrayal of Will Parry is stronger than Lyra Belacqua, although I am sure Philip Pullman would disagree.
Many cheers to him though for writing such a fantasy. Overall, I would rank the novel as my top 3rd or 4th.
PS: I would like to end with my favourite from the novel:
"Well, where is God, if he is alive? And why doesn't he speak anymore? At the beginning of the world, God walked in the garden and spoke with Adam and Eve. Then he began to withdraw, and Moses only heard his voice. Later, in time of Daniel, he was aged - he ws the Ancient of Days. Where is he now? Is he still alive, at some inconceivable age, decreipt and demented, unable to think or act or speak and unable to die, a rotten hulk? And if that is his condition, wouldn't it be the most merciful thing, the truest proof of our love for God, to seek him out and give him the gift of death?"
Not that I support it.
