(no subject)

[amedia]

Well, I finished The Amber Spyglass, which seemed to take forever - unlike the first two books, which I read very quickly. Every time it started to get interesting, the author would break off and take us somewhere else. I got really tired of those dratted Houhynyms - oops, I mean mulefa. Plus it was really obvious that he had an axe to grind; the preaching (if that's the right word) got in the way of the story quite a bit.

I think an editor needed to sit him down with a not-so-subtle knife and say, "Come back when it's half as long."

ETA: I should make the obligatory noises here: it was a remarkably inventive, creative work; there were some breathtaking scenes and terrific characters; there were multiple allusions of great erudition. I just didn't like it very much.

Comments

[pocketwitch.livejournal.com]

The snarky gay angel rocked my world. I'm surprised I haven't written any gay angel slash yet ...

it was as if he had so many Big Philosophical ideas and he wanted to make sure they all got in.

Yeah, I can see that. I think that's definitely something you'll be more likely to notice than me - since you're familliar with philosophical writing, you're going to be more aware of it if someone is just sort of showing off. I was easy to impress. LOL.

What precisely was her temptation, anyway, and did she fall?

I think that, when Mary told her the story of the marzipan, she was, without realizing it, tempting Lyra with just the idea of love - love in the adult sense, something Lyra hadn't ever even thought much of before. She doesn't fall in love with Will until Mary presents the idea to her, and it sort of becomes a possibility in her head, and she accepts that possibility - that was what I thought her fall was, her choice to take her relationship with Will away from the realm of innocent friendship.