Kevin's Weblog

In case anyone was wondering, I did finish the last book of the trilogy about two months ago, and just never got around to writing about it.

I was initially a little put off by the shift in literary style in this book. While the first two books are written in a straightforward, typical fantasy style, this book employs some more sophisticated techniques. Reading the books in quick succession, this is something of an abrupt change, although given that the books were originally intended for children, and released years apart, it may be somewhat appropriate.

My only real complaint about the book was the horribly clichéd mechanism by which the multiverse is saved. I was satisfied with the level of explanation of the metaphysics, and books with well-developed xeno-biology always get a thumbs up from me. The ending is bittersweet, and vastly better than a happily-ever-after end would have been. If they do finish out the trilogy in movies, I hope they don’t punk out on the ending.

Speaking of which, I saw the Golden Compass movie last week. I was fairly unsatisfied. The character development is nearly non-existent, and the plot moves along at a breakneck pace that leaves almost every scene feeling incomplete. There are some small deviations from the book early on that didn’t bother me too much, but the scrambling of events at the end was just upsetting, particularly since it creates two sizable plot holes. First, you can’t dogsled from Norway to Svalbard (although I grant that many viewers won’t notice this); and, second, it seems implausible that Iorek wouldn’t bring reinforcements to Bolvangar with the ordering of events in the movies.