I'm about halfway through the second volume of Phillip Pullman's popular fantasy trilogy. I'm really getting a lot of pleasure out of this entertainment. Possibly because it's is heavy-handed enough that even I don't miss it's subtleties.
The first book was a little slow developing, but was inventive enough to stay interesting. The heavy-handedness early in the book "Her destiny is to save or destroy us, but she must not be guided, she must be allowed to choose her own way" is forgivable as a Russian novel stating of the theme. The twist at the end led me to believe that there would be something here really worth pursuing. I came away from that volume saying, "So this is what Terry Brooks is shooting for."
The second book, though, has really opened up about what he's really playing at. There's some Larry Niven science fiction explanation for religious myth, some Greg Bear physics meets psychology, and some Dan Brown science versus the church. There's moral complexity galore: multiple bad guys each with their own agenda, and one of those just might be the right thing, or maybe good is in fact bad, or bad was just trying to be free. Freshman Philosophy, perhaps, but the book is filed in the Young Adult section at the bookstores as well as SF.
Like I said, I'm getting a kick out of it, and that may be just because I'm simple enough to feel proud of understanding what he's doing.
Posted to Books at February 18, 2005 9:00 PMYou know, I'll have to give that a whirl, John. I need something to read after Robin Hobb's _Farseer Trilogy_ (the Assassin books). The great thing about your reviews is that they usually contain enough for me to actually figure out whether or not I should read the book.
That or we've spent too much time together over the past 17 years.
OBTW, the TypeKey thing doesn't work for me here but it does on my site. "The site you're trying to comment on has not signed up for this feature. Please inform the site owner." I'll look into it but you may want to also.
Posted by: manasclerk at February 28, 2005 3:09 PM