His Dark Materials - Phillip Pullman (re-read)

I've just re-read Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and, as always, cried at the end. I felt compelled to pick up The Golden Compass the day I came home from seeing the third Pirates of the Caribbean installment, in order to purge that disappointing trash from my mind. (It didn't work! Come on, they KILLED ORLANDO BLOOM! I don't care if he's still technically alive, since Will's gory heart is in that stinky old wooden chest with Elizabeth on that island... THEY KILLED THE MAIN LOVE INTEREST IN THE TRILOGY! What a horrible idea! Not to mention that they also killed off Norrington! WAY TO GO, DISNEY!!)

Anyway... The film version of Compass is due out at the end of this year, and I'm hopeful that this wonderful story will come across well on the big screen. I think many of the elements would be difficult to convey visually - like the mental process by which Lyra reads the alethiometer, the way the children's daemons transform, the difference between severed and normal humans, and the way humans communicate with their daemons through shared feelings. And in the next book, the whole part about the subtle knife, and the things that Lyra and Will are thinking about, and then the third book, with the angels and the mulefa... I hope the movie found a convincing way to show all of these elements, because such an inventive, epic, and heartbreaking story deserves a really spectacular film adaptation. Could be as good as Lord of the Rings... should be at least as good as the Harry Potters! (Speaking of... I can't wait to see the Order of the Phoenix movie - just a month from today!)

Harry Potter & the Order of the Phoenix (#5) - J. K. Rowling

Title: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Author: J. K. Rowling
Read: January 15-19, 2007

It took me a long time to get around to this, the fifth book in the Harry Potter series. I had read #1-4 at my own pace, and had borrowed #5 from a friend, but it languished on the bottom shelf of my bookcase and I couldn't get interested in tackling such a long book. I've always liked the story, but Rowling's writing style aggravates me - excessive passive voice would be easy to avoid, with some careful editing.

I'd also heard that this book was "darker" and that Harry behaved in the erratic, irrational manner of a moody adolescent, which is not exactly a selling point for me.

Anyhow, I might have read the first page or two - I honestly don't remember - but then I started school again and there was no chance I'd be able to devote any time to the book, so I returned it to my friend. That was in early 2005. I vaguely promised myself that I would at least read 5 and 6 before their respective films came out.

Now it's 2007, and I finally got the stomach to take Harry on again. I checked it out from the local library and finished it in about 3 days, staying up very late some nights to see what would happen. It was a good story, as usual, and I didn't see the big deal about Harry's supposedly "darker" behavior. The beginning part, at Harry's adoptive home with the Dursleys, is always my least favorite section, but this time things got off to a quick enough start.

It's a bit silly the way new magical items and spells keep being introduced in each book (things we've never heard of before at all). A little too convenient, IMO. The characters sometimes seem too black-and-white for my taste as well. It's just too easy. Unfortunately, one of the more complex characters (and one of my favorites) was killed off in this episode, and at an awkward point in the story... but I found that refreshingly realistic, for a change.

I don't approve of the way Harry always decides to ignore common sense and do things his own way, not tell the adults that can help and protect him - thus creating some unnecessarily dangerous situations for his friends. I mean he does that in every book so far - while his friends and other characters don't behave that way. He is clearly not learning anything. It's kind of hard to keep liking a character who won't learn from his experiences, no matter how tortured and predestined he is.

Anyhow... I guess that is all I didn't like about the book, so overall it was pretty good - good in the sense that it kept me interested in the overall series and eager to read the next installment. Like the others, though, I am sure I will not read it again, and will prefer the movie (whenever it comes out). (Speaking of the movie, sometimes the description and dialogue seemed geared to a movie rather than a book... almost lazy... did she write them with the movies in mind? I have to wonder.)

So far my favorite is still #3, The Prisoner of Azkaban (both book and movie).


P.S. I unexpectedly found myself envying Harry & his friends for getting to take interesting, unusual classes (the ones they were griping about having to attend)! I really wish I could be back at school...