ewee (06/26): Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

After catching the film with miz sy at the fab Grand Lake, I had to pick up the book again, to remember how the story really went. And for the record, I was very pleasantly surprised by the movie. Faithful enough to the book to be good storytelling, and the acting and animation were a pleasant surprise. (But keep in mind, I went in with extremely low expectations.) Sure, it's a bit dumbed down, but ain't that the way it goes in Hollywood? And yeah, I hate Ms. Kidman, but that works in her favor in this story...

Overall, I loved this book, the story is told well, the characters are well-drawn (I do appreciate a strong female lead, especially in Sci-Fi/Fantasy), and elements of the story are strikingly original. I loved the idea of the daemons, the externalized soul, the a more integral version of the witch's familiar. It reminded me of Anne McCaffrey's dragons, and the exquisite connections that were able to exist because of these animals. On a small scale, my relationship with my dogs has always hinted at this. (Really! My last dog, Satchmo, could wake me up just by the power of her thoughts! I'd snap awake, thinking about her, and there she'd be, staring at me with her laser eyes. And more than once, I'd wake up, knowing she needed to go out, while my partner blissfully snoozed on. Ok, ok, not amazing enough? Lookit who works, and who sleeps all day. Can there be any question? They control everything!)

True, it's not a particularly pro-religion (ok, not at all) book. But I'm not sure why people are so frightened. It might encourage people to think and to ask questions. But I remember reading a wide variety of things in my youth, and true, mebbe I'm not who you want your children to become, but I do remember that it was the things that I was not allowed to read that gained more allure because of the restriction. My mom forbabe me from reading about Karl Marx, since she blamed Communism on much of the strife in Korea. (Interestingly, her brother blames the U.S., and as a result would not converse to us in English. Instead, we fumbled along in Korean or French.) In the end, I think I might've picked up a deadly dull biography or something, because it left me with the impression that Karl Marx was a bit dull. So restricting thought doesn't usually provide the results we might want.

But back to the book. Strong female lead, inventive use of animals (they talk! they change shapes! they are your bff!), good storytelling, witches! (good and bad!), the heroic struggle between forces. It's a good yarn.

Despite what folks say, it's not a preachy book. In fact, it has troubling shades of gray -- many of the characters are a confusing combination of good and evil. We are as drawn to the "evil" as we are repulsed by the "good." And it's this complexity of development that is truly the book's strength. Well, that and the daemons. What I'd give for a companion like that...