pullman sway

finding the end of the golden compass gripping, i quickly followed it with the second book from the trilogy, ‘the subtle knife’. quite off the first book’s plot during the initial course of the book, it introduced a new character will (which later on will play an important role). unlike the first book, some parts of the story happened in our own world, the earth. soon after, it also introduced other worlds which can be reached from portal openings and proclaimed that there are millions and millions of other worlds, similar to the earth, sustaining its own civilization.

sparsity. it’s what all about this second book. every character from the first book has its own mission to do, some without any bond whatsoever with what other characters are doing. lee scoresby, witches serafina pekkala and queen ruta skadi, and mrs coulter have their own businesses, and the book will jump from one scene to the next almost instantaneously. but still, it’s a nice read and of course, the ending is something that would want you to read it’s finale, ‘the amber spyglass’.

having said that, i would still stick with my point from the first book that pullman’s his dark materials is an entangling complex novel that should be aimed at at least young adults to enjoy.

but at least for pullman's sake, when he was asked if he wrote the trilogy aiming at a specific age group, he answered:

No. I don’t think about the readers at all. If I think about the audience I’d like to have, I don’t think about a particular age group, or a particular gender, or a particular class or ethnic group or anything specific at all. I’d like the largest audience possible, please. When you say, “This book is for children”, what you’re understood as saying is “This book is NOT for adults.” I don’t want that. I’d like to think that I’m telling the sort of story that holdeth children from play and old men from the chimney corner, in the old phrase of Sir Philip Sidney. Everyone is welcome, and no one is shut out, and I hope each reader will find a tale worth spending time with.

so to finish the point, i guess it's all about wrong categorization (being a children's book, and winning awards under children's categories), advertisement, and lack of public awareness. reading after all is about sensible reading and realizing what is fiction and not. For parents, it's being a responsible guardian and making sure you can answer your child once he asked if Lyra and Eve (of Eden Garden) are one and the same.