le mois en livre #09/13

Diesen Monat könnte es ein bisschen eintönig werden. Ich habe zwar endlich mal wieder drei Bücher geschafft, die entstammen aber einer Trilogie. Als ich diese komplett und in neuem Zustand (im Glitzerschuber!) für nur drei Euro in unserer Lieblingsbuchhandlung Boulinier entdeckte, musste sie zwangsläufig mit... "His Dark Materials" von Philip Pullman dürfte den meisten durch die Verfilmung des ersten Bands als "The Golden Compass" bekannt sein. 

Die Trilogie beschäftigt sich mit Lyra, die in einer Parallelwelt lebt, und Will, der aus "unserer" Welt stammt. Während ihrer Abenteuer in verschiedenen Welten geht es um Erkenntnis, Verantwortung und das Erwachsenwerden. Der religiöse Grundton nimmt in den Büchern stetig zu. Den ersten Band "Northern Lights" habe ich natürlich mit ein paar Filmbildern im Kopf gelesen... allerdings war das Buch letztendlich klarer und besser. Im zweiten Band "The Subtle Knife" wird Will eingeführt und für mich war es das beste Buch der Reihe, da es hier verschiedene Welten gibt und näher auf "Dust" eingegangen wird. "The Amber Spyglass" macht die Reihe komplett, ist für meinen Geschmack aber ein bisschen weniger rund als die anderen Bücher. Die geäußerte Kirchenkritik ist alles andere als subtil und insgesamt wirkt die Geschichte nicht so richtig "zufriedenstellend".

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This month i read the Trilogy "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. When i spotted it at our favourite secondhand bookstore Boulinier, complete in a shiny slipcase, unread and as good as new, for three Euros i just had to buy it! Most of you may know "His Dark Materials" due to the film "The Golden Compass" based on the first book.

Northern Lights/ The Golden Compass

content: The first book follows the adventures of Lyra Belacqua. She is brought up in Jordan College, Oxford, together with her daemon Pantalaimon. By accident she learns about a possible war and Dust from her uncle Lord Asriel, the only relative known to her. Shortly afterwards she is taken to London by Mrs. Coulter who offers to teach her and take her to the north. She soon runs away and starts her own journey to the north where Lord Asriel is imprisoned and where she hopes to find her friend Roger who has been taken away by the Gobblers along with many other children. After a lot of adventures and help from many interesting characters like the panserbjoern Iorek Byrnison, Lyra follows Lord Asriel through a portal into another world.

opinion: As i have seen the movie first i needed some time to replace those images with my own. Mrs. Coulter kept looking like Nicole Kidmann, though. The book was much clearer than the movie and was a nice and quick read.

The Subtle Knife

content: In the second book we meet Will (who comes from "our" world). He tries to find his father who has been lost during an expedition. He accidentally finds a window into another world and there he meets Lyra. They both explore the strangely empty world and soon find out that the lack of grown-ups is due to Specters who seem to destroy their daemons. Children whose daemons have not settled yet can not even see them. During a fight Will wins the Subtle Knife but loses some fingers for it. With its help he can open windows to other worlds and the search for his father continues. 

opinion: The best of the three. I liked learning about different worlds and Dust. I constantly had an image or idea in my mind how those worlds could look like. Nice read.

The Amber Spyglass

content: Lyra wants to go to the world of dead to search for her friend Roger and Will is helping her with his knife. After finding it they realize they have to leave their daemons behind to enter it -in agonizing pain. After finding Roger they continue to stay in the world of the dead in search of a good place to open it up with the help of the knife. The opening allows the dead to dissolve and become one with everything instead of staying in the dark forever. The world they come into is the one of the mulefas where also Mary Malone went (from Will's world) and succeeded in seeing Dust with an amber spyglass. During all this Lord Asriel is gathering an army from different worlds to destroy the "Almighty" and found a republic of Heaven. 

opinion: Don't know about this one... it did not seem complete and the anti church attitude was not that subtle. I found the mix up with angelic forces in the story frankly a bit annoying. Should you be able to ignore (or enjoy) this the book is as good as the rest and a nice read. The end, though, leaves you a little dissatisfied in my opinion.

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