Alistair > Recent Status Updates

Starting to get a little preachy.

So far this is a very sweet story.

Hmm. My twelve-year-old is going to be the new Eve? STRANGER DANGER. GET HER AWAY FROM THESE PEOPLE!

Not how Mrs. Coulter reacts, obviously. She goes to try to kill her daughter. I just know that if someone said this about my niece, my first reaction would be to subdue the nutjob and then call the police.

“And is the boy with her? The boy with a knife?” Well, when you put it like that, that does sound like a bad situation for your twelve-year-old daughter to be in. Not Mrs. Coulter’s intention, I know, but I had to stop to laugh at that.

I get that not everyone can have the subtlety of Terry Pratchett. I truly do. My issue is in trying to tell a story, nominally for children though I can't imagine a parent in the land who would be ok with anyone younger than thirteen reading this (which would make this YA, but I'm getting ahead of myself), trying to subtle and ending up being confusing.

It just occurred to me: If Azriel is The Bad Guy, which he seems to be given everything that eats humans is siding with him, does that mean The Authority and the Church are the Good Guys?!?!? Are you kidding me?!?

Oh good. Angels are coming to pay pilgrimage to a sleeping Lyra (and Will?) All subtlety has left the story, folks.

“Matter and spirit are one.” Don’t do this to me, man.

Ok, now that the titular knife is in play, things are slightly more interesting. But only slightly. I still don't care for Will.

I am 5000% done with our world being in this. If I wanted Christian fantasy, I'd read C.S. Lewis. The spiritual aspect took me a little aback during The Golden Compass, but it was less obtrusive than in this book.

I know I'm only annoying myself at this point. You can't even get manslaughter out of this. The fact that the alethiometer calls him a murderer is downright stupid. I need an adult to explain to this child that he did not murder anyone because murder requires intent to kill. Will threw himself at an intruder in self defense and then the intruder fell over a cat and down the stairs.

I'm sick to death of Will thinking he's a murderer and that the police are after him. I don't know what British law was like when this was written, but I know that you can't charge a 12-year-old with murder when what actually happened was an intruder tripping on the cat and falling down the stairs. I get that we're in Will's mind and the poor bastard doesn't know the law, but come ON.

So far this is not winning The Golden Compass its fifth star. The jump to our world and then a different third world is very jarring and the sudden shift to Will's perspective is similarly jarring. Having a boy with a very depressing home situation suddenly shoved into this action-packed sci-fi/fantasy series with its cool female protagonist so far hasn't been the best move.

It occurs to me that this is incredibly dark for a children's book. I'm enjoying this, but I can't imagine this being enjoyed by a child any younger than twelve? Eleven at a stretch? Well, it would be enjoyed, but the eleven-year-old might keep the lights on and be jumpy around anyone they don't know for a bit.