TSK: Part 1: Chapters 1-5

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Section 1


Please keep all discussion and speculation to the events of Chapters 1-5.


No spoiler tags required. Though it would be highly appreciated if you Uncheck Add to my Update Feed to avoid accidentally spoiling things for your good read friends.


Please do not discuss events from later sections/books. Referring back to events from the previous book is fine.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

So far I'm liking this one a bit better. I guess we've got 3 worlds so far, including our own, or one very like our own about 15 years ago or so (which I think is when this was published?)

I find that Will is a nice balance to Lyra. However I'm bothered at how matter-of-factly he kills someone and how she trusts him MORE because she finds out he murdered some one. This is a kid's book?

I turns out dust are really what we call dark matter, giving this a bit of a scifi flavor, only still incredibly fantastical.

I wonder if the guy whose head we saw (an explorer) is going to really be Will's father. Lee Scoresby (the air captain guy) is going to look for him thinking he's not really dead.

My big complaint is some of the anti-religion ranting. I'm not even religious. I just hate it when I'm taking out of the narrative of a story because the author gets up on their soapbox.

[Suzanne]

Ha yes - "He's a murderer." "Phew, I'm ok then."

But hmm...I had the feeling that the death was totally accidental - that Will wanted to escape from the house and was going to run past the guy coming in the door to his room, he jumped up, and the guy backed up over the cat and fell and hit his head. Did I miss something?

I have been having the same feeling about Will's father. I suspect he is in Lyra's world.

[Rob, Mayor of Ghost Town]

Yeah. If anything it'd be considered Manslaughter I think.

[Jaime]

I thought the death was an accident (though I wonder if the guy actually died). His attitude towards the whole thing seemed more of a way to feel better about it. The way his life has been recently it seems like he took the parent role and he is justifying it in his mind was he had to do it to protect his mom and himself. It would be a difficult thing for a child to take it.

As for Lyra relaxing at the alethiometer answering that he was a murderer, she compared the idea to Iorek, who she is probably missing terribly, and that made her feel safe. She was way more concerned with him being untrustworthy, which who could blame her after what happened with both her parents.

[Suzanne]

I like the comparison with Iorek - that makes sense that it'd make Will feel more familiar.