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🦋 Somewhere on down the road

Sylvia and I read Chapter 18 of The Amber Spyglass tonight, in which Lyra and Will enter the world of the dead; and I found myself utterly blown away by Pullman's creativity. There has been a lot to love about this series of books; but I think the transition here from the multiple universes of living reality to the world of the dead might be the single greatest bit of genius so far. It's believable and elegant and not kitsch, it seems like Dante writing science fiction. -- Wait no, that's not quite what I mean; I mean something more like "a great science fiction author writing the Inferno."

Sylvia impressed me last night when we were reading about Mary Malone among the mulefa, by picking up on the fact that what Mary was building was going to be "the amber spyglass" -- she figured this out before I did.

posted evening of Friday, February 20th, 2009
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Though I found parts of The Amber Spyglass frustrating and less effective than the earlier books in the trilogy, the trip to the land of the dead involves some brilliant imagining, and is impossible to forget once you've read it.

Michael Berube wrote at length about Pullman today; it's well worth checking out.

posted evening of April 8th, 2009 by Levi Stahl

Thanks for linking that, I'll be sure to read it.

posted evening of April 8th, 2009 by Jeremy

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