His Dark Materials

Yes, I've finally gotted around to reading that almightly holiness of atheistic fantasy: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. Ehh...

Okay, out of the gate, yes, the Church is presented as a bunch of loons that consider ruling by fear and suppressing thought to be a good thing. But that's what Pullman is bashing. Not religion, but the acts done in its name.

Beyond that, not much direct attacking of religion at all. In fact, I would even say this is more agnostic fantasy than atheist fantasy, Pullman does not discount the possibility of some god, just doesn't have a god hanging around the story. He does have a spiritual message, and hammers that home, especially in The Amber Spyglass, so it's not like he removes religion without having anything to replace it.

As for the fantasy itself... I wouldn't call it amazingly brilliant. It's a coming of age story (which is the point of the matters he is talking about), but still largely fits the generic mold established by Joseph Campbell (I am incredibly cynical, aren't I?). The first book is more exciting that the second, and the third is just wacky. (Really? The mulefa world evolved naturally? Why am I having trouble believing that?)

Interesting point: for the movie, they ended the first book a little too early, and don't bring out a major event that would have changed the way some of the people were viewed. For a long while I thought the message was going to be "all adults are evil, trust the children".

A series that has been hyped more than it really deserves, especially around the anti-religion message. Readable, yes, but I'm thinking the Narnia books have more re-readability than these.

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