nahirjg

** spoiler alert ** I'm not at all bothered by the pagan underpinnings of this series, that's not why I'm giving The Golden Compass 2 stars. My primary issue is with the characters of Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter. I don't want to 'spoil' any plot points, but let's just say the one who's set up to be the good guy ultimately turns out to be pretty reprehensible, and the one who's set up to be the bad guy is eventually made out to look like, if not the "good" guy, then the slightly-less-bad-than-the-other-guy guy. I can appreciate character arc and change, but that isn't what's happening here. It's more like you learn some questionable stuff about the one who's supposed to be the good guy late in the story, which makes you question whether he's really a good guy at all, but he continues in a heroic role through the series. This isn't a case of the hero with a dark side either, this supposed good guy does something truly horrific at the end of this book, yet it seems we're still supposed to root for him. ---SPOILER ALERT---Also, this is a very, very long book, and the bulk of it centers on Lyra's journey to try and deliver the Golden Compass of the title to Lord Asriel. Yet after hanging in there through nearly two hundred pages of Lyra's trek through the snowy wilderness, filled with near-misses and close calls, when she finally arrives on Lord Asriel's doorstep near the end of the book, he tells her he doesn't need it and she can just keep it. The whole book is about her efforts to deliver the thing, and when she finally does, he doesn't even want it!! If I'd been reading a print edition of the book instead of an ebook, I'd have thrown that book against the wall in anger and frustration when I got to that part. Also, if you have a low tolerance for violence done against children, this is not the book for you.

2022-10-16 02:24