Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
 

Any readers/fans of this series?

The Golden Compass
The Subtle Knife
The Amber Spyglass

Re: Philip Pullman - His Dark Materials
 

I've got the first book but I haven't read it yet. Saw the third book in hard back and it looked so cool I went and bought the first book. It will have to wait until I get done re-reading Hicthhiker's Guide to the Galaxy again. :)

Alvis, if you want, I'll mail you the hardback (Amber Spyglass) if you haven't already purchased it.

While I used to keep books forever and ever, I find that I have lots more space if I just give them away.

Let me know.

I read all three. Terrific fantasy series. Dark, violent and magical. I loved them.

I recommend reading all three back to back, as there is little in the way of recaps in books two and three.

Did you get my e-mail?

You've got mail

I'm reading Golden Compass right now. Started it from a recommendation and will finish the series as soon as I can. I'd never read anything by Pullman before but I want to read everything he's got now.

I plan on reading the Sally Lockhart trilogy soon too. Any other Pullman books I really need to get to? Or any I should avoid?

I've read the first two and loved em. I actually didn't know the third one was out. Thanks! :)

Just started reading this... I saw a blurb in a magazine that said the Church is really hating this series of books, so naturally I headed out to the library to pick it up. Looks to be pretty interesting.

I read these a while ago even before I picked up the Harry Potter series. I believe they are better written than Potter as well. I don't know if I would consider them Children's lit though maybe more like young adult. The Daemons were a pretty cool idea.

Apparently, there is a 4th book coming eventually.

Dark Materials
 

However, in the UK, 'The Golden Compass' is called 'Northern Lights'. The first one was tremendous stuff but I felt the magic wane a little by the 3rd book. I'm not sure where you could go with a 4th ?

From www.ew.com

NEXT A fairy-tale novel, The Scarecrow and His Servant; and a follow-up to His Dark Materials, tentatively titled The Book of Dust.

I saw a clip on CNN a few months ago stating that someone had purchased the movie rights to this series and was excited about making the films happen. It was in the heat of the Harry Potter/Lord of the Rings debuts.

I would personally be very interested in seeing movies based on these great books, but I suspect the problems caused by the church would either cause the movies not to be made, or to be made very badly.

That's pretty much the reason I want to read these books.

Because, you know, when the God Squad tells you not to read certain books, then those are the books you ought to be reading. :D

Of course the church would hate these books, especially the last one, which was essentially a rehash of Paradise Lost. I liked the first two, but I already read Milton in English lit.

I don't see how there could be 4th book. What else is there to do?

<small></small>Perhaps written from an alternative vantage point? Or the future solitary adventures of the two lead characters?

Presumably he <i>won't</i> sweeten up the "ending" of the original the trilogy.....

[Only just heard this news]
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/his...ls/index.shtml

BBC Radio 4 is running a series of three dramatisations. The first is playing now as I type this. Anyone with the right software and so minded could listen to it over the web....

.... parts two and three are on at the same time over the following two Saturdays.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/his...kmaterials.ram

There's the link. It's nice and clear, but since they used the voice codec it's in mono, and I know it's in stereo. A 128k stereo mp3 version of it is floating around.

Hmm, since this thread's been bumped, I was wondering if anyone had any details on the upcoming films....

There was mention of them in either Time or Newsweek when Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets came to theaters.

Films? I don't see how they're going to do it without making the last one PC. It is a remake of "Paradise Lost" afterall, and the Catholic Church has already came out hard against the books.

He was interviewed on BBC <A HREF="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/openbook/openbook.shtml" target="_blank">Radio 4</a>. The RealAudio <A HREF="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/openbook/ram/open_book.ram" target="_blank">file</a> will be available for a while and there [was] a <A HREF="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/hisdarkmaterials/ask_pullman.shtml" target="_blank">webchat</a> on Thursday 4:30pm UK time. For the observant, <A HREF="http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/arts/hisdarkmaterials/ask_pullman.shtml" target="_blank">here</a> is the transcript!

During the interview he talked about the <A HREF="http://www.darkmaterials.com/adap2-2.htm" target="_blank">film</a> as if it <i>was</i> going to be made. As well as the planned film, I have heard of a <A HREF="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/film/1803880.stm" target="_blank">stage play</a>. He also talked about the subject matter of any new book set in the same mileu.

In particular he wants to look at what took place when the bear king and the Texan balloonist first met. It was also suggesetd that he might examine what happened to the daemons separated while Lyra et al were in the land of the dead.

Take a gander at <A HREF="http://www.facingthechallenge.org/pp6.htm" target="_blank">this</a> [IMNSHO] horrendously skewed <i>non</i>sense:

Maybe another interesting article talking about Pullman's desire to destroy Lewis' Narnia.

A Labour Of Loathing

Pullman’s stories are crammed with the supernatural and the mystical, and take place mainly in alternative worlds, most captivatingly of all in an Oxford recognisably the same place while utterly different. But while Narnia is under the care of a benevolent, kindly creator, Pullman’s chaotic universe has no ultimate good authority, controlling and redeeming all. God, or someone claiming to be God, dies meaninglessly in the third volume of his trilogy. There is life after death, but it is a dark, squalid misery from which oblivion is a welcome release. Pullman puts forward a complex theory of man’s true destiny, and his stories are a powerful epic that everyone should read. But many who buy these books for children and grandchildren would be surprised, and even shocked, if they knew just how vehemently Pullman despises the Christian Church, and how much he loathes his dead rival, Lewis. He is, in fact, the Anti-Lewis.

He has described the Narnia Chronicles as grotesque, disgusting, ugly, poisonous and nauseating. Yet, as Michael Ward, an expert on Lewis, has pointed out, Pullman’s saga begins just as Lewis’s does with a girl hiding in a wardrobe and finding more than she bargained for. It is almost as if he wants to turn Narnia upside-down and then jump on it. While Lewis portrays rationalist atheists as comically ghastly and joyless, Pullman depicts priests as evil and murderous, drunk and probably perverted, and the Church as a conspiracy against happiness and kindness.

It is a sore pity that Lewis is not here to defend himself and Narnia against this angry foe and his supporters. In his absence, both sets of books will have to speak for their authors. In an age where most stories written for grown-ups are about nothing very much at all, Lewis and Pullman have addressed the great issues of this time and all time, and both deserve to be read by adults. But Pullman would have made better use of his dark materials if he had sought to co-exist with Lewis rather than to attack him. Narnia may have no weapons of mass destruction, but it has a powerful guardian, and I have a suspicion that it will find ways of defending itself.

Exactly why a movie like this will never be made.

It would be nice to see a thoughtful movie aimed at children, but this material would garner so many protests I just can't see anyone getting the job done.

I just thought I'd chime in again about the films...

New Line does indeed have the rights.

Sam Mendes has expressed interest in directing.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...633925,00.html