Exploring Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

by Lois H. Gresh

His Dark Materials is one of the most popular, award-winning fantasies of all time, a bestselling trilogy hailed as "a modern classic" by The New York Times.

Now, for the first time ever, Lois H. Gresh helps young readers examine Pullman's intricate universe with Exploring His Dark Materials, the ultimate companion guide. Gresh's fun, interactive book explores the complex science, religion, and fantastic elements of His Dark Materials in a way that's both informative and fun for younger readers. Exploring His Dark Materials is filled with sidebars, history, facts and an in-depth analysis of the books, answering questions
*What are daemons?
*Why is dust important to the series?
* Is Dark Material real and how does it relate to our universe?
* What are the origins of ghosts and shapeshifters?
*And much more!

Exploring His Dark Materials is a thrilling and essential guide for young adults to help them explore this fantastic and challenging fantasy world.

Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult, Reference

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

LOIS H. GRESH is the New York Times Bestselling Author (6 times) and USA Today Bestselling Author (thrillers) of 30 books and more than 65 short stories. Look for SHERLOCK HOLMES VS. CTHULHU #1: THE ADVENTURE OF THE DEADLY DIMENSIONS (Titan Books, April 2017), the first in a new trilogy of Sherlock Holmes thrillers from England's premier publisher of all things Holmes, with Random House distribution in the USA. Lois’ books have been published in 22 languages. For five years, Lois was a staff book reviewer at scifi.com (now SYFY.com, the Science Fiction Cable Channel), and her work has been on national/international award ballots eight times. She is a frequent Guest of Honor Author at large fan conventions and has appeared on television series such as The History Channel’s Ancient Aliens and Batman Tech.

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is the 4th time I have read this book and this read around I had it licked in 24 hours. Not due to any book endurance/speed reading incentive, but because I just could not remove it from my company and when it was in my company the ease and enjoyment of the bloody thing had it finished in the lickety split 24 hours. And I cried and I remembered how good it was and I am to begin the third and final book today and hope to remember and cry also.

[Chorvelynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading the incredible His Dark Materials trilogy there was this wanting feeling to just read more about it because it just raised a great many interesting questions and discussion in my mind. I just needed a post reading material to quell that curiosity. Bottomline I serviced my book hangover by reading this book.

Although this book was unauthorized or in no way affiliated to the writer or publisher of Philip Pullman's trilogy it still presented itself as a well-researched inquiry about the major elements of His Dark Materials by an avid fan. The most significant and thought provoking chapter for me was when Gresh discussed about the idea of Daemons and how this was close, if the not same, as our world's concept of the soul. It asked very interesting questions about what the soul really is and where is it exactly in our body located. Which something that I have never thought of before. I have always thought that from the Biblical-religious point of view, I have always understood it, but after reading this, apparently, I don't know that much. For me the idea of our soul has always been associated to one's death. It is an entity or a different form of ourselves that travel from this world into another, once death takes us. What this chapter lead me to realise, is that the soul is actually in us all the time. It is something that is giving us life, making us breathe in and out, basically, what makes us alive. Then it made me think about the process of making life, a tiny little cell that starts out as something physical and quite technical, once explained by an expert, but what makes that tiny thing's heart beat the second it can? It's mind-boggling! Then it also talks about the soul's location in the brain, which is even more complicated. It's asking how, exactly, thoughts are even formed. It's such an amazing discussion.

I truly, truly, enjoyed my time with this book! It has opened my mind to such interesting questions that helps me examine my self, my life, and my beliefs even more. It has, also, further enriched my understanding of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials. It's the kind of epic story that breaks through the limits of time, space, and possibly, worlds.

[Margot · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series. He pulled together the ideas for the books from many classic literature and scientific sources, including Milton's Paradise Lost, a line from which inspired the title of the series. Lois Gresh promised an exploration through these inspirational sources and an analytical look at the many issues (metaphysical, spiritual, scientific, and otherwise) explored in the series. But I found that her book failed to continue the conversations that Pullman began.

Gresh says in her intro that although she at first intended the book for young adult readers (to match the initial intended readership of Pullman's series), she decided instead to write the exploration so that it would also be accessible to adult fans of the series. In this, I think she failed. Pullman explores some heavy hitting topics through fantastical metaphors in the series, and I expected the same from Gresh. But essentially all I read in the first 50 pages was summaries of quotes from the book where Angels or Dark Matter (Dust)--or whatever the topic at hand is--are mentioned. And then some summaries about what scientists have proposed or what the Bible says. There was not a single claim from Gresh in the whole thing; she was much too objective for my taste. And she went too in-depth when unnecessary and struggled to describe much of the scientific to anyone who hadn't at least taken a Physics of Astronomy class in the last year.

[Lea Shvarts · Rating 2 out of 5]

I did not finish this book. It wasn't too bad and I could have finished this book but I decided that I do not want to waste my time with a book like this.
I did like the information and the quirky facts but it seemed as seemed as if they were being dragged along an endless floor. The author was just throwing in a lot of information that didn't transition well, and did not relate quite reasonably to the His Dark Materials. Also there was too much information jammed into chapters making it hard to grasp.
Some of the facts regarding what happens in His Dark Materials were wrong.
Overall, the information put into the book was interesting but Lois Gresh didn't transition the information well throughout the chapters and from one chapter to another, didn't make it easy to grasp and didn't connect it well to the His Dark Materials to the point (at least for me) where it wasn't quite interesting.
This book doesn't over much about the craft of His Dark Material but rather is like a fun facts sort of book but the fun facts aren't much about the Pullman series.

I made the book seem terrible but it wasn't extremely bad. I liked the facts they were just dragged along a bit too much.

[Laura · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is the perfect book for anyone interested in the "behind the text" of Pullman's series, however the slightly too-chatty tone combined with first-person narrative (eg, "I have a few modern books about angels" or "In the last chapter, we discussed..."). I found it distracting from the actual information, but for middle grade readers - whom I suspect are the intended audience - that might not matter.

[KJ Shadows · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite series. I'm in love with Pan.

[Anastasia Robinson · Rating 2 out of 5]

This isn't necessarily a bad book, it just wasn't what I was looking for. I wanted a book that explores the concepts and themes in His Dark Material. This book takes each concept and goes over the known history of each topic. For example, in the chapter about witches, the author attempts a historical timeline of witchcraft (with a lot of generalizations about modern witches that I didn't really agree with). In the chapters on subjects that deal with quantum physics, such as dark matter or parallel universes, I really struggled as I don't have the scientific knowledge that the author has, and found I wasn't retaining any of the information.

Fun idea for a book, I also didn't mind the author chiming with with first-person comments-thought it was kind of cute. But ultimately I didn't finish because I wasn't really in the mood to 'learn'; I was looking for a philosophical exploration rather than a factual one.

[L · Rating 4 out of 5]

*read for research purposes. review to be posted soon*

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

Sporadic interesting information, but not that well organized (separate chapters on the Afterlife and Heaven?) or engagingly written, so just couldn't slog through it. For more information, look at some of the other 2-star reviews. Not terrible, but just better uses for my time. Read some of the more interesting chapters, but could not motivate myself to read those that looked less interesting. For a more upscale (and shorter) review of His Dark Materials, see Chapter 5 of Michael Chabon's Maps and Legends.

Still, Ms. Gresh has carved out a successful niche doing similar "companion" books to the Eragon, Twilight, Mortal Bones, Hunger Games, etc., etc., series - so good for her :).

[Dria Butler · Rating 4 out of 5]

O.K. I loved the movie and loved the book! In the movie I didn't like how they left You questioning the whole story, but in the book they had you think of your own ending, then told you the real ending!!!

[cody]

so far lyra is trying to catch up with her father lord asrial, and roger. lord asrial plans to open a portal to a diffrent world because he is sick of the authority.

[Ariel · Rating 1 out of 5]

Couldn't finish it.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very well written,very interesting and creative storyline