His Dark Materials

The trio of novels that comprise His Dark Materials were written by Philip Pullman. I read them a while back after getting a recommendation from a co-worker. This review has a few, minor - I think - spoilers so if you dislike spoilers, please avoid this post.

The first book is The Golden Compass for those of us in the US (and possibly Canada, although I am not sure). For the rest of the world, it was titled Northern Lights. The novel starts off normally enough for fantasy novels. A young girl - orphaned - or so we are told gets into trouble because she doesn't follow societal norms for a young girl. Over the course of the novel she comes to make friends with a sentient, armored (polar) bear among others. She uncovers the conspiracy wherein children are being abducted. Further, it is being hidden by the Magisterium - a religious and political organization.

The novel ends with the promise of more mystery and the confirmed existence of alternate realities.

If the story had ended there, I would rank it as worth reading but nothing special. The novels continue with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. What can I say about these? If you are an atheist, an agnostic, a deist or a theist (with strong internal belief/faith) then give them a read. They are quite good.

However, it is obvious that Mr. Pullman is disgusted with religion: he particular dislikes Christianity and it would appear that Catholicism is his favorite lightning rod. It could be argued based on my reading of the book that the Magisterium is the alternate worlds analog of the Catholic Church (although that would be an over-simplification) with all the warts in full view.

I began to loose interest in the series around the third book because of the obvious diatribe against religion. That is not to say that the books aren't good, they are; however, I grow tired of books that preach a moral. I don't really care if the moral is religious or not. If I want to have a discourse on religion, I will sit down with the same co-worker that recommended the books. If I want to read escapist fiction, I want to leave the morals out of it.

In closing, I found it difficult to read the books as I got pulled out of the immersion layer by the preachy tone. However, the novels are well written and the story is not bad. Feel free to give it a go.

Black Madonna

A short review of "Black Madonna" by Marc Gascoigne and Carl Sargent. The book doesn't have anything to do with the religious icon. It deals with the supposed secret history of the origins of Christianity. It shares the core of its plot with the popular "Da Vinci Code". However, this book was published in May of 1996 while Dan Brown's novel didn't come around until March 2003. Both seem to take information from "The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail" published in 1982 in the UK. I will leave to the reader to determine why the book was nearly universally panned by serious students of history.

Back to the matter at hand.

This book can be read by anyone who is familiar with the cyberpunk genre but I would not recommend it to anyone else. Specifically designed to sit in the Shadowrun universe (a pen and paper role playing game) this book only lightly touches on that mythos. However, the terminology is from the Shadowurn universe and the timeline matches the game (the book is set in the year 2057).

The book is your standard paperback fare, easy to read with no real thinking required. The best part of the plot is that the protagonists don't know what they are doing early in the book. The actual plot isn't as important as the idea that there are clues to follow and you as the reader can follow along too. I knew where they were going but still didn't see the end from the beginning. Too often I pick up a book and can tell within the first few chapters who did it and sometimes even why. Breaks the mystery for me. This book did well here.

The other interesting thing was a character named Streak who provides much of the comic relief. However, some of it is unintentional.

End of the line: I would hihgly recommend this to anyone who plays (or has understanding of) Shadowurn. Additionally, anyone who likes cyberpunk should give it a read. Everyone else, take your chances.

Quantum of Solace

Hmm, where to start. I'll keep this short. This was a string of action scenes held together by the barest plot for glue. If you haven't seen Casino Royal, watch it first and then this or the thin plot will make no sense at all. I was reminded of the plot in Licence to Kill which is not high praise if you haven't seen it. All in all, I enjoyed the show with the understanding that I had rented it and would have been upset had I payed to watch it.

Hoping the next film is better.