Well, you can tell I've been home for the holidays and that I got a whack of new books to read, because I've managed to polish off two more in the last couple of days. Of course, they're not what you'd call difficult reads, as they are techincially 'children's' books, but whatever, I'm enjoying them.

So 29 and 30 of the year are The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife by Phillip Pullman. Yup, since the movie has come out, I've been curious about these puppies, and my wonderful husband, knowing this, got me the three books for Christmas.

Of course, part of my curiosity also comes from the fact that a couple of Catholic school boards in Canada have banned these books from their school libraries as basically not being something that upholds the values of the Church, or some such nonsense, so yeah, you bet I wanted to read them at this point. I think their dislike of the books also comes from the fact that Pullman is a self-avowed atheist, and isn't really shy about proclaiming himself as such.

Well, I guess, reading these books as an adult, I can kinda see why Catholic school boards MIGHT have a problem with these books, but I still think book banning at all is a lousy, lousy thing. One of the main characters, Lord Asriel, certaintly looks like he's launching a campaign to kill God, and the Church (or Magestirium) is pretty much the big bad guy in this.

But the funny thing is, I find these books very spirtual overall, but of course, its not a Catholic Church approved spirituallity, it is more... Native American or shamanistic-type spirtituality. Everyone on Pullman's version of Earth has what is called a daemon. This daemon is the physical expression of a person's soul, and it always takes the form of an animal. The daemon's animal form is fluid when a person is a child; the daemon able to take on many animal forms, but once the person reaches adolescence, the daemon settles on one animal form, and that form is refelctive of the person themselves. So basically, the daemon is their totem animal.

The main character of the book is a young girl, Lyra, and her daemon Pantalaimon. Lyra has been raised by Scholars at Oxford University, and, like a lot of fanatsy novel heroines, has grown up half wild and free-spirited. She's saucy and brave and streetwise, not ladylike in the least, a hell of a liar and a tactician, but not particularly polite. She's a handful, and while she annoys those raising her, you also know they wouldn't have her any other way.

Lyra's world starts to change one night when her Uncle Asriel (and just from his name, obviously a derivative of the demon Azreal, I could see where his part in the story was going) arrives at the College with some very startling information; information that nearly gets him poisoned for his troubles. It's only because Lyra eavesdrops on the whole thing and is able to warn him from drinking poisioned brandy that he is saved. This night she hears for the first time of the magical properties of Dust, and hears about the ideas of other worlds you can see through the Aurora Borealis in the North.

Also she finds out about the Gobblers, a scary group of individuals who are snatching children from the streets all over England, for some nefarious purpose that can only be speculated on. In charge of these Gobblers are the beautiful, mysterious, and unmistakably evil, Mrs. Coulter.

Eventually, Lyra heads North to rescue Lord Asriel and all the children snatched by the Gobblers. She travels with a motely crue of gyptians (gypsys), a Texan aeronaut, and a sentient polarbear who has been exiled by his own people. They reach the Gobblers experimental station in the North and find out the they're attempting (and succeeding) in physically separating the taken children from their daemons. By this point, as we've met so many daemons and because Pantalaimon himself is such a major character, Pullman does an excellent job in making us understand just how abhorrent this practice is to the people of this world. The separated children stumble around like they're half dead, and in fact, most die right from the offset of shock. It's a terrible, terrible thing, and it seems that the Church is behind this. Is this Pullman's position on the Church that it is attempting to sepearate its worshippers souls for its own benefits and not really care about their spirituality? Ah, who knows. I can't say I really thought deeply about the whole thing throughout, I just enjoyed it for the story it is.

So while in the North, Lyra finds that she can use the aliethometer (the 'golden compass', a truth telling machine), rescues the children, meets witches, restores the rightful polar bear king to his throne, rescues Lord Asriel, and eventually, finds her way into another world after Lord Asriel creates a rift between the worlds.

Pullman starts the second book The Subtle Knife in our own world, where we meet twelve year old William, who is despereately trying to hide his mother so he can go on the run. William's mother sounds a little schizophrenic, although after a while, well, are you crazy if they really ARE out to get you? It seems William's father was an explorer of some renknown who disappeared twelve years ago on an expedition to the Arctic, and a lot of different people are very interested in what he may have discovered. William, while trying to get away from some men, inadvertantly kills one of them, and he knows that he has to get far, far away. Well, where better than another world? He crawls through a door he finds (quite by chance, but of course we know that nothing happens by chance in all of this) and ends up on world pretty much completely inhabited by children because the adults have all been affected by Spectres, creatures which seem to feed on adult souls and leave them indifferent and infectual in the world. Rather put in me in the mind of Rowlings' Dementors actually.

Anyway, while in this world, William of course meets Lyra and all sorts of hijinks ensue. She finds out that she is supposed to help Will find his father, but she doesn't do this very well, and ends up briefly loosing the aliethometer when its stolen in our world by a man actually from Lyra's world. Lyra doesn't deal as well with our world as it is much nosier, and busier, the terminoligy for things quite different. Lyra's earth puts one in mind of early 20th century Earth; just before WWI when there is techonology, but it hasn't advanced to what we have today. There's still something... quaint about Lyra's world, that quaintness ours lost long ago.

Some of the bouncing back and forth between worlds (and everyone gets in on it really) gets a bit confusing, but its somewhat made easier when Will becomes the bearer of the subtle knife, a knife that can literally cut anything, electrons, atoms, doorways into other worlds, etc. Its a hotly contested item, but can really only be used properly by the bearer. It also carries the name Aesirhaettir, which means god killer, and so Lord Asriel wants it for his campaign against God, or the Authority, as they begin to refer to him here.

The Subtle Knife is definitely more... upfront about its anti-organized religion sentiments, as it has Lord Asriel (off panel the entire book) gathering a vast army so he can re-wage war against the Authority, and win this time. Basically, in Lyra's world, the right side won (ie not the rebels) and so the Magesterium have been stifling human advancement since the beginning of time, and Lord Asriel wants to do things 'right' this time. Of course though, the 'right' side won in Will's world as well, and they (us) haven't been tecnologically stunted. Although, as we have no visible daemons, we may be spiritually stunted somehow... dunno.

Anyway, overall, I'm really enjoying these books. The overall feel of Lyra's world is a very interesting one, its got that nice famliarity with enough differences for it to still feel "other", and the characters are interesting and diverse. Mrs. Coulter is a hell of a bad guy, in some ways even more scary than Voldemort or Sauron, and hey, any world that has sentient polar bears, I'm all for that.

I find it sad these books are banned in certain schools. I don't think there's a need for that.