His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass; The Subtle Knife; The Amber Spyglass
I’ve been “reading” (books-on-tape from simplyaudiobooks.com) the trilogy of books titled “His Dark Materials”: Golden Compass / Subtle Knife / Amber Spyglass. My son read the first one year or two ago, but didn’t get into it much. He’s not much for fantasy, and this book is a bit mystical. But it relies on science and theories of the multiverse as its basis. There’s lots of “unknown” things in it, but that’s ok with me.
But the interesting part is that the books’ climax in a war on religion. In the book, God is simply one of the angels who seized power. He’s not really the creator he claims to be. No one knows who that is, not even the angels. And our intrepid heroes find themselves slap dab in the middle of saving the (many) universe(s) from all the evils of religion.
There’s a fair amount of anti-industry subtext in a running analogy of the evils unleashed by man’s curiosity, like nuclear energy / global warming / industrialization / science in general. This pales under the various legions of witches, harpies, ghosts and angels, but it’s a satisfying link as well.
It’s an interesting bit of fiction, and not a bad novel for tweens and teens (and moms and dads). There’s plenty of positive role models, examples of “bad” kids as victims of their upbringing overcoming their problems, the importance of family, personal and social responsibility, and so on. It may be a little rough on younger kids as there is some death and mild gore in the books, and it is sometimes described in vivid detail.
It’s a bit Harry Potter-like. Highly recommended if you go for that sort of thing.
I also highly recommend www.SimplyAudiobooks.com, a service like NetFlix for audiobooks. I have been a customer of theirs and Audible.com. Where Audible serves as an example of how not to serve your customers, SimplyAudiobooks is a shining example of quick service and excellent execution. I am a very happy customer.
June 6th, 2005 at 3:53 pm
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