TV #61 of 2022: His Dark Materials, season 3 This adaptation has long struggled to capture and distill the complex themes of Philip Pullman’s classic fantasy trilogy, and this final season faces the additional hurdle of navigating the events of its most complicated volume, The Amber Spyglass. Theoretically, it’s a pretty faithful representation! The series …
Tag Archives: His Dark Materials
TV Review: His Dark Materials, season 2
TV #17 of 2021: His Dark Materials, season 2 A clear improvement over the debut year of this literary fantasy series, in two key areas. First, perhaps simply due to an increased effects budget, we actually see dæmons — the trademark animal soul companions of the franchise — in most shots of anyone from Lyra’s …
TV Review: His Dark Materials, season 1
TV #8 of 2020: His Dark Materials, season 1 For all its spoken exposition, this literary adaptation somehow manages to be downright inscrutable in terms of motivation and worldbuilding, such that neither the characters nor their setting feel anywhere near as fleshed-out as they do on the page. (The climactic battle for the panserbjørne throne, …
Book Review: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
Book #185 of 2019: The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials #3) Author Philip Pullman takes some odd plotting shortcuts in this trilogy’s conclusion — like offering practically no motivation for a pivotal trip to the world of the dead — and it’s easy to see how his populating a traditional Christian theology …
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Book Review: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
Book #156 of 2019: The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials #2) I really like how this sequel deepens the worldbuilding of the original His Dark Materials book, expanding the action from the alternate reality of that story into a universe more like our own and one other besides. And the character moments …
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Book Review: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
Book #128 of 2019: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman (His Dark Materials #1) Another old favorite that I’m revisiting, this time in anticipation of the upcoming TV adaptation. This trilogy ultimately goes in some odd directions (and I was underwhelmed by its recent prequel), but the first novel is a masterful piece of fiction, …
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Book Review: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman
Book #243 of 2017: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman (The Book of Dust #1) A fairly underwhelming prequel to Philip Pullman’s classic His Dark Materials trilogy, La Belle Sauvage consists mainly of characters trading custody of the baby Lyra Belacqua like a tiny squalling MacGuffin. There’s too much focus on setting up the events …
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