Wednesday, May 30, 2007

Golden Compass


Got started on another YA Fiction series recently: the His Dark Materials trilogy, by Philip Pullman. The first book, The Golden Compass, is soon to be made into a movie by New Line starring Daniel Craig (The new Bond), Nicole Kidman, and Sam Elliott. Not quite sure how they got enough out of the book to make a full-length movie; maybe they had to do a little padding. Reason I say that is that (so far, at least) this is one of those trilogies in which the books don't really stand alone. Yes, this book has a narrative structure that rises, and climaxes near the end, then sets up the next story, but there is absolutely no question that the story has to continue. Contrast that with the Bartimaeus Trilogy, in which you could read the first book and be completely content that the story ended there. At any rate, I'm sure this will be a fun movie - Balloon rides, armored polar bears, changeling animal companions... I won't give away any more yet (I'm about a third of the way through the next book already), but it is a pretty enjoyable read.

Book 33

1 comment:

SnowLeopard said...

This is one of my most favorite J/YA series written- I really enjoy all of Phillip Pullman's works. Garth Nix is another favorite of a similar genre, but some of his stuff is pretty dark and a little creepy. I can't wait for the movie to come out! Guess you don't need the second book that I left on your desk for you... :)