Evil & Malice: Save The World!
Evil & Malice: Save The World!
Category Archives: Children’s Books
Nation
Nation
Mau, our earnest Polynesian-type tribal member returns to a world devastated instead of celebrations upon completing his trial on the island of boys.
Ermintrude, to become Daphne, has been on her way to her father – a British Official in this alternative world – in one of the Empire’s far-flung outposts. The boat she is on has a run-in with a tsunami and lands on Mau’s tribe’s land.
Each of these adolescents are haunted by their ancestors and those ancestors’ expectations. Mau by the calling of the Grandfather Birds who goad and berate him for not doing enough. Ermintrude/Daphne by her grandmother’s voice telling her what is and is not proper. The problem, as always, is that the ancestors have little recognition of how drastically times have changed. So much so, that some – but not all – the traditions must morph into something to serve the new and growing community of tsunami survivors finding their way to the island.
Both Mau and Ermintrude/Daphne have been touched by fate to become leaders through no machinations of their own. They have been thrust into responsibilities beyond their years. Many of the older survivors defer to both of them despite their youth. The story conveys the weight of this very well.
Nation
I highly recommend this book to anyone 10 or over. There are some intense scenes about massive death and destruction, so the usual cautions apply.
The Amber Spyglass
The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3)
I understand that this book’s theological premises and nihilistic ideas have caused quite a ruckus among some. Those I could get past quite easily as these are thoughts many have had. The resolution of death shown in the books might scare some, but it should not be a new idea.
I did not like or dislike this book, per se. I like the first two in the trilogy very well, but felt the third became little more than a diatribe against all religion that Mr. Pullman disagreed with. I actually had trouble finishing it because it was just so filled with resentment.
This series had such promise if he had just resisted the temptation to use it as a diatribe against religion.
The Subtle Knife: His Dark Materials, Book 2 (Audiobook)
His Dark Materials takes a very dark turn in the second book by Phillip Pullman, His Dark Materials, Book II: The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials)
Introducing Will, the murderer, who will change Lyra’s life forever, the book chronicles the slow transition of Lyra from wild child to a growing awareness of her place in the world. She is not nearly as street smart as she thought she was, much to her chagrin, and both children’s trouble. Who is this strange and sullen young man that has tied his fate to Lyra’s? And why does Lyra receive instructions to help him on his quest rather than her own?
The book is not a happy one. There is death, destruction, cruelty of all sorts that make the earlier volume look quite happy-go-lucky in comparison. These children are on their own in a very hostile world. Their world includes a world ruled by parent-less children who have gone the way of The Lord of the Flies.
Dust is still a part of the story, and in this book, we discover what dust is – and why the Church fears it so. (It is still silly theology, but I digress.) Cittagazze is their refuge and their fear. In this place, no adult is safe from specters that destroy the very life force. The blame for these creatures seem to go to the very creators of the Subtle Knife which takes up the children’s quest.
There are no happy endings here, but it is the middle novel of a trilogy. Often, authors like to leave the reader frustrated by what is found in the second of three novels. The heroes and heroines suffering unbelievable and harsh loss only to be redeemed in the third novel.
I will give this a guarded recommendation. It is a dark novel, but no darker than many others I have read in the Young Adult / Children’s category.
The Golden Compass (Audiobook)
His Dark Materials, Book I: The Golden Compass
I know this book is beloved by many, and I honestly enjoyed it, but I did not like any of the characters. They all came across as selfish, self-centered power mongers – even the main character of Lyra. Strangely, this did not diminish from my liking the novel – and being anxious to listen to the next two.
Lyra (and her daemon) is a wild creature – neglected and mistreated in some ways. Loved and doted upon in other ways. We learn how her life started and that she is a child of destiny – to even determine destiny. Some of the book actually made me cringe at the Lovecraftian references that may not have been intentional. There are parts of the book that make me think of the battle Lovecraft had against the Elder Gods in his own books. (I realize not many people will even acknowledge the possibility of the influence.) I do not see a major influence from Tolkien, more of a diatribe against C.S. Lewis.
Now, I am somewhat familiar with the religious rigamorale around the atheistic themes of the series, His Dark Materials. Perhaps I was expecting some great blasphemy in the book. The thing is, I started giggling when I heard the explanation of “Dust.” It is such an utterly immature and ill-informed argument about original sin, that I could not have taken it seriously when I was 10 years old. (I believe that is the target audience for this book?) The original sin argument is not an unfamiliar one to those who have read the Church Fathers, for that matter. (There is an actual theological schism due to the time when original sin comes upon human beings.)
Now, granted, I had an excellent religious education so I may be unusual, but if you are a Christian and your child can be swayed by such a ridiculously simplistic theological statement as the basis for Pullman’s anti-god theses, well, you have deeper issues. And since “dust” is the main characteristic within the series, well, if you cannot think of it as anything but something for which you must suspend disbelief, your own belief system is in no danger.
This is a major flaw within this book, after all, if he set it in an Asgardian or Grecian mythology / theology, it would not create anywhere near the controversy.
The book does not have a happy ending. It ends in an unintentional betrayal – and not the one I was rooting to have happen. It really doesn’t have an ending. It sets up the next book which, when I finally get to get home I plan on grabbing and listening to!