His Dark Materials

His Dark Materials Synopsis

His Dark Materials is an intensely modern work of almost visionary originality. The three volumes of the trilogy, Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife  and The Amber Spyglass, are multi-layered and embrace many different themes and facets relevant to us all. His Dark Materials explores the biggest questions of them all - existence, childhood, innocence, knowledge, grace, death and, last but by no means least, that of love. It is very much a book for today, for the beginning of a new millennium.

With its roots planted firmly in the English dissenting tradition that harks back to William Blake and others, the trilogy takes its overall title from Book One of John Milton’s epic Paradise Lost. Indeed, like that great English classic, His Dark Materials  is a reworking (not a retelling) of the story of the Garden of Eden and the Fall of Man. It shares all the scope and grandeur of that story yet takes us far beyond. His Dark Materials  is utterly original.

At its simplest it is a story of courage and humanity about a boy and a girl with a destiny to fulfil. At its widest it whirls the reader into a universe of wonders and dazzling marvels. The gently probing moral debate and new myths for our age that the author works into his narrative do not in any way mar or block the wonderful story that he unfolds.

Here is a magnificent tale, rich in incident and character, that takes the breath away and leaves the reader with a sense of wonder. There is a terrible and abiding sense of loss when the book is finished. What higher praise than that can there be?

You can make comparisons to Tolkien, to CS Lewis but in the end such comparisons are meaningless; His Dark Materials is very much its own thing. This is what strikes new readers most and is why the books have such a startling effect.