Are You Writing Serious Fantasy? - The Barrow-Downs Discussion Forum

littlemanpoet · 07-10-2002, 01:59 PM

That trilogy I mentioned above was "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. The first volume is called "The Golden Compass", followed by "The Subtle Knife", then "The Amber Spyglass". Let me warn those of you who call yourself Christians, Pullman sets up a paper Tiger version of Christianity in the book and proceeds to show how ridiculous it is. This is the big flaw in his otherwise remarkable piece of fantasy. I wouldn't mind if he had actually done an adequate job of showing how difficult xianity is to believe as compared to other faiths, but that's not his tack. In any case, I still think it was a great read for depth of character, intensity of wonder, scope of vision, sheer plot (Pullman is a good story teller), and 'how to write good fantasy'. He even pulled off the Tolienesque eucatastrophe via ultimate sacrifice by some less than righteous individuals who are deeply tied to the herione (now there's some parallel to Tolkien, eh? - think Gollum/Frodo). Good stuff, but could be better. Still worth the read.

07-10-2002, 01:59 PM	#11
littlemanpoet Itinerant Songster Join Date: Jan 2002 Location: The Edge of Faerie Posts: 7,066	That trilogy I mentioned above was "His Dark Materials" by Philip Pullman. The first volume is called "The Golden Compass", followed by "The Subtle Knife", then "The Amber Spyglass". Let me warn those of you who call yourself Christians, Pullman sets up a paper Tiger version of Christianity in the book and proceeds to show how ridiculous it is. This is the big flaw in his otherwise remarkable piece of fantasy. I wouldn't mind if he had actually done an adequate job of showing how difficult xianity is to believe as compared to other faiths, but that's not his tack. In any case, I still think it was a great read for depth of character, intensity of wonder, scope of vision, sheer plot (Pullman is a good story teller), and 'how to write good fantasy'. He even pulled off the Tolienesque eucatastrophe via ultimate sacrifice by some less than righteous individuals who are deeply tied to the herione (now there's some parallel to Tolkien, eh? - think Gollum/Frodo). Good stuff, but could be better. Still worth the read.