Customer Reviews

The Science of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials

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As its name indicates, this book explains the science behind Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. The authors refer to passages from the trilogy and then explain the science behind them using easily comprehendable examples and analogies. Chapters speak of everything from the Northern Lights to the Amber Spyglass. This non-fiction book is a reference for the fictitious His Dark Materials. The science explained, though it is complex, can be understood easily by a lay reader.

I would recommend reading the His Dark Materials trilogy by Phillip Pullman before reading this book to understand the references and the context of the examples given in the book. I really liked the analogies because they made the science easy to understand, even for those who either do not understand or have not yet studied Physics, Chemistry, and Astronomy behind many science fiction novels. I especially enjoyed the depth of the history that the authors gave of the different concepts, such as the explanation for the appearance of the Northern Lights. Whether you are looking to understand His Dark Materials or to better understand subjects in your science class, this book fulfills its duty to explain science. Eventhough I do not usually enjoy science fiction, I enjoyed this book for its educational value.
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The trilogy just stunned me and I worked at trying to understand its complexities. Then I read this book, and everything made sense. At first I declared that the trilogy was better than 'The Lord of the Rings' but could not explain why. This book nails it. It will be wonderful if you read the trilogy, read this book, and share everything with your children. Remember when 'expanding your consciousness' was all the rage? No? That's OK. All these books do it with a basis in science. Buy the darn books. Buy them for your friends.

Fantasy for the sake of escapism is wonderful. Explanation of the same may become problematic. To the reader who enjoys escaping reality for fantasy, explanation for what otherwise has no reason is as inviting as the many hurtful "growing up" moments: e.g. when we learn that there is no Santa Claus or Easter Bunny or Tooth Afairy.

One of Great Britain's greatest fantasies is the Dark Materials' trilogy - where little children take on magical odysseys to cure what adults ruin. Similar to "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" or any of the J.K. Rowling "Harry Potter" books, Philip Pullman's fantasy has been the torch which lit many of a certain generation's children's dreams. A contemporary to Rowling, his writing has been the source of discussion and movie material.

And, so it is this book that makes it so unlike interpretations of many of its peer novels. Harry Potter novels are decried as the source for the intense growth of devil worshiping satanic cults. To the contrary, "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe" has been accused of being a Christian lesson in mythic tale. Narnia - the land of "The Lion . . . " - is separate from our own. It is heaven or the "other world." Potter's world coexists with our own - he is different, he is the devil incarnate. Or, so critics tells us.

Pullman's world is both "other" as well as part of our own. He has Lyra and Will meet, even though they are from different worlds. With magic knife, Will cuts his way into our world. How, the authors ask, can this be?

Metaphysics. This book teaches us about the fourth dimension, string theory, dust, dark materials, quantum physics and more - and how each relates to what we thought was a children's novel. Peeling away at the layers of plot in the Pullman books, the authors of this book teach us more science than we probably have learned in decades. At times I wondered whether I was learning more science in this book than I had forgotten in a lifetime.

And, so the authors explain that our childlike imaginations are actually rooted in truths - scientific truths. That our fantasy is actually reality. That our escape is merely a change in direction to what we otherwise do not know. In short, science is as magical as it is logical. Science can be as much fun as . . . dare I say it. . . Rowling or Pullman or C.S. Lewis.

I learned a lot from this book. And, although it awakened me to learn something that I may have otherwise been just as comfortable as not knowing, I have no regrets. To the contrary, I regret having been so ignorant. I enjoyed reading this book which unlocked many mysteries which have been hidden from me for years. And, I only wish that science could have been taught in a similar manner.

Mary & John Gribbin have created a well organized and eaily understood science guide to the authentic physics behind Philip Pullman's epic work. The Gribbins combine good, clear writing with a thurough understanding of phyisics that leads to simple explanations a layman can understand. With out this valualbe work, Mr. Pullman's fantastic tale would remain simply a 'story' underpinned by fanciful and extremely complex and difficult science that might or might not be real for our world. As it happens, much of it is real for our world.

For the ordinary person, this little book has pretty good coverage of the scientific basis for Pullman's trilogy. I am no expert, but from the info in the college courses I have taken with the Teaching Company, I think the writers have done well to condense so many items in a little space. It helps to understand that many of the ideas in Pullmans's fantasy have a bit of reality to them.

This is a brilliant concept, and was executed relatively well. My main complaint is that the tone of writing is not consistent. I felt 'talked down to' in some chapters and then unexplained terms, concepts and/or examples were used that went over my head in other chapters. For example, the authors give a detailed definition of what "experiments" are, but then assume readers know what "polarized lenses" are. I don't know about others, but I knew what an 'experiment' was about a decade before I had any experience with polarized lenses, and I'm still not 100% sure I'm thinking of the right thing. Particularly toward the end of the book the authors seemed to have jumped ship on breaking concepts down with the same voracity as in the beginning.
Obviously, this is a companion to the trilogy. Although I felt the editing should've been better for this book, it really is an invaluable addition to the His Dark Materials experience.

I really enjoyed the writing and the explanations offered in this book, which break down some of the happenings in The Golden Compass into an understandable reality, such as the Subtle Knife and how it is based in the 'String Theory.' All if this is fine. The authors go awry, however, in chapter four when they decided to trash my favorite occult pastime (Tarot card reading) by declaring that an experienced card reader can not read cards as well as Lyra naturally reads the Golden Compass. Of course she can read it well - neither SHE nor the Golden Compass exist! She's a fictional character! And the Golden Compass - based in I Ching as it were - doesn't exist either! I found this aspect and criticism to be totally unwarrented and totally out-of-place in a book that otherwise is very entertaining and informative. IMHO, that section needs to be tossed out!

It is a fun book using the facts of Dark Matter in a rather cavalier way that is fun and gives a great explanation for the magic/ absurdities in the Dark Matter series.
i liked the book and bought is as part of a set of the dark matter trilogy that begins with The Golden Compass.

I can see how this book would be interesting to some people, but for me it was just not worth struggling through. There are two problems with this book for me: 1) I'm not that into Philip Pullman and 2) I'm not that into science. I suppose I shouldn't have bothered to pick this book because of those two reasons, but it came highly recommended by friends. I found that if you are not thoroughly into Philip Pullman then you tend to be a little lost at times. There are parts that you have to know from reading his books. They don't give you much of explaining the book parts that they are using when talking about the science. The science part was very interesting. The theories were talked about in depth. It would be fascinating to someone that cared about that sort of thing. I'm just not that type of person.