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Friday, February 12, 2016

Philip Pullman, among others

I came to Philip Pullman via the now hated, and often forgotten Hollywood blockbuster Golden Compass. I found the film fascinating, and the reviews I read told me that the books on which the film was based were far more superior. I had to check out the books.

Yet to commit fully, I got the first book in the series, Northern Lights, on which the movie was based. I liked it better, of course. Lyra is far more alive in the book, and I liked the witches, and Farther Coram and Ma Costa, and even the evil Mrs Coulter. It’s a fascinating world, realistic yet magnificently different.

Then I got hold of other two books and read them fervently. Since then I have read the books several time. And I have two different sets. There is something so engaging about the series that you keep going back to them.

Among the three, my absolute favourite is The Subtle Knife, for one reason, Will. Oh, there are so many other reasons, the chemistry between Will and Lyra, the world of CittĂ gazze, when Mary Malone talks to the Angels on the computer screen, how Will and Lyra recovers the stolen compass, basically everything. My absolute favourite is when Lee Scoresby meets John Perry and the heartbreaking scene when Will meets his father. How I wish John Perry was alive.

I am sure Pullman thought the same. Thus, both Scoresby and Perry returns in The Amber Spyglass, albeit as ghosts, but no less intelligent and determined.

This is a classic fantasy series of all time.

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