the anatomy of a trilogy

[juldea]

I just finished The Subtle Knife. Pullman really knows how to build a trilogy.

Think of the quintessential Trilogies out there. Star Wars, LotR, even Dragonlance counts. Book 1 ends with the winning of a minor battle, a call to arms, the characters making resolutions to Set Out and Do Something. Then you get book 2, and at the end there's just depression and despair. Someone's dead or injured, everyone's split up, the goal is out of focus, hope is hard to come by... How in the world will they ever get through this, Mr. Frodo?!

Subtle Knife was much better than Golden Compass. Now I'm going to go right into Amber Spyglass because I am on the edge of my seat. I pity those who had to wait three years between the books originally.

I'll leave you with this: "There are two great powers," the man said, "and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit."

Comments

Re: another series to check out:

[eustacia42.livejournal.com]

Well, er, hahahahahahaha..... um....it usually turns up in the Historical Romance section of borders or b&n... but they are not really romance novels because they are a lot better than that--higher quality, if you know what I mean. Actually, she didn't intend for them to be romance novels when she wrote them--they were just novels, but the publisher had to put them under a heading of *some* sort, so that is what they went with. Don't worry, though, no half-dressed people on the cover or anything! And yes, they do have their share of steamy sex scenes, but those are not, er, the *point* of these books. They're about this lady who was an Army nurse, in the 1940s right after the war, who accidentally goes through some magical Stonehenge-type thing and ends up going back in time to Scotland in the 1740s. The books are sort of centered around the Jacobite Uprising of that time period but are really about her and the handsome young Scot she falls in love with.... Trust me, though, they're really really good. The author actually has like a PhD in Marine Biology or something, and did a lot of research for these books. Plus she's just a compelling writer. You won't be able to put them down. :)

Re: another series to check out:

[juldea.livejournal.com]

Oooh, interesting! Will I learn history through reading them?

Re: another series to check out:

[eustacia42.livejournal.com]

But of course! :)

-mjl