Thursday 17 January 2008

Review: "His Dark Materials" Omnibus by Phillip Pullman

Early in December, my wife and I went to see the movie "The Golden Compass" with my mother-in-law in Los Angeles. My mother-in-law has been listening to the audio version of "The Golden Compass", and a nibble through a few sections of the omnibus edition held my attention, so I picked up the book as yet another of many gifts to myself for Christmas. I read through the book on the way back to Scotland, and finished it a few days ago.

Years ago, when I finally read "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep". I was disappointed that the spirit of the work had been stripped away to make "Blade Runner", leaving behind a beautiful surface reading of the work cast as sci-fi noir. It was a succesful and great film, but I wonder if it couldn't have still been great and retained some of the philosophical, psychological and spiritual aspects of the novel.

I had a similar feeling when reading "The Golden Compass". I hope that now that the groundwork is laid out, the rest of the trilogy can come to the screen with a little more of its spirit intact.

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