*Caution – contains plot spoilers!* 
Since Christmas I have spent a lot of time squirrelled away with my nose in a book. For the first week it was the Chronicles of Narnia, as I worked through the box set that I received for Christmas. I loved reading the books, loved the simplicity and complexity, loved the characters and the battles they have to face, loved the metaphor and allegory that is woven through the text.
My favourite had to be, ‘The Voyage of the Dawn Treader’ I enjoyed it so much because it seemed like many stories woven into one. Eustace’s transformation into a dragon and the resulting transformation in his character, Lucy’s battle with the temptation to read a spell that will make her ‘the most beautiful woman on earth’, Reepicheep’s bravery and focus on getting to the lands of the east, etc etc.
I was a little bemused at the end of the books, where it turns out that the children have all been killed in a train crash, but it was more a sadness that the stories had ended than anything else.
After finishing the books I felt quite odd – I had spent every spare minute for a week living in a strange Narnian fantasy world where anything was possible, suddenly I found myself wandering round Wandsworth expecting squirrels to talk and wardrobes to lead to other worlds. It was a little disconcerting.
More pressing was the need to read something else, to get my teeth into a new literary challenge. Before Christmas I had read Philip Pullman’s Northern Lights, book one of the ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy. I’d read it partly to see what all the furore surrounding the books was about, and partly because I wanted to see how closely the text followed the recent film. I was unsurprised to see they differed vastly, and interested by the plot and characters that Pullman presents.
So, armed with a Waterstones ‘3 for 2′ bargain, I have since been wading my way through the other two books in the trilogy – ‘The Subtle Knife’ and ‘The Amber Spyglass’. I have been pleasantly surprised. In the 2nd book I was impressed with the way Pullman weaves different worlds together, so they run alongside each other, and impressed with the way the plot switches between these worlds. The introduction of Will was a stroke of genius, and the end of the story made me desperate to start book three.
I haven’t been dissapointed so far. I havent got to the end yet but the whole story is building to an impressive climax. I think one of the things I have enjoyed most is that the stories have really made me concentrate. Usually I can read a book in 24 hours, it’s like I can read over the words, assimilate them without very much effort, and sometimes that can make me feel as if I am only skimming the surface of the plot. The complexity of the HDM books, and the detailed plot and characterisation has meant I’ve been reading in a much more focused way, something I have really enjoyed.
The trilogy, and Philip Pullman himself has come under a lot of criticism due to the portrayal of the church that is a key theme throughout the stories. Reading them through, I can see the point of those who would label them as anti-God. In the books, The Authority (Pullman’s characterisation of God) is a repressive, hidden, vengeful creation who would seek to destroy anyone who thinks differently or challenge his ill-gotten superiority. The church is the machinery used to enforce this domination and control.
I havent been overly worried, reading the stories though, because anyone who has ever encountered God (and here I’m talking about the real thing, not the one in the story), will know that He is nothing like the one portrayed in the story. Again and again as I have read the passages and descriptions through I have found myself thinking, “I’m so glad He’s not like that”. I can’t see how the stories would promote or advertise athiesm, because all that comes accross, in my opinion, is a cloudy, doubt-filled, guessing at what is right and wrong, it’s all quite hopeless, and I can’t see how that would be attractive to anyone.
I haven’t got to the end of the story yet, and I know the part where Lyra (one of the main characters) kills god is approaching. I am interested to see whether this changes the way i feel about the stories and the themes within them!
Above all, the books I have read over the last two weeks or so have made me think that I never want to just see things in black and white. I love the way that in fantasy stories, the normal paradigms of rule and logic are stretched, and anything can happen. I think God is like that too – he thinks and acts outside the box, always waiting to surprise us. So they have reminded me to keep an open mind.
Coming up, I have Robert Jordan’s ‘Wheel of Time’ series (which involves 12 and a half books so should keep me going a while), as well as ‘Shadowmancer’ and ‘Tersias’ by GP Taylor. Last year I tried to read 100 books, but I think I only made it to about 85, maybe 2008 will be the year when I finally make triple figures!!
