Golden Compass

Drolefille · #1 12-14-2007, 04:27 AM

No I think it's better than Eragon. I've read both series... (yeah I can be a bit masochistic and/or obsessive I haven't figured out why)

Eragon is, IMO, an undeveloped, poorly written, story by a bad author. There's potential, but it is so obvious the kid is 15 and if it weren't for Harry Potter and the fact that his parents self-published him, Eragon wouldn't exist.

His Dark Materials is a cool idea. I love Lyra's world, I love the concept of daemons and the subtle knife and all of the environment, and Golden Compass/ Northern Lights is not bad at all. However I think the series is a downward slope where it becomes less about the story and more about Pullman's point. Narnia was so good because you didn't need to read the allegory to love the books. There's no way to avoid the "message" behind HDM because it's so.... OMG in your face.

And I say this as a person who's very fond of alternate reality novels, dystopias, post-apocalyptic, other-worldly fascist societies etc... so the fact that "The Church" is the "bad guy" doesn't inherently bother me. But it was less "Look a story" and more "don't you see my POINT, it's BIG, and DRAMATIC, Religion is BAD"

That said, YMMV, because I've heard some people who love it, some who hated it and they ran the gamut from Conservative Christian to atheist on both sides. I'm just kind of "meh" about it.

DaemonSeid · #2 12-14-2007, 09:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Drolefille

No I think it's better than Eragon. I've read both series... (yeah I can be a bit masochistic and/or obsessive I haven't figured out why)

Eragon is, IMO, an undeveloped, poorly written, story by a bad author. There's potential, but it is so obvious the kid is 15 and if it weren't for Harry Potter and the fact that his parents self-published him, Eragon wouldn't exist.

His Dark Materials is a cool idea. I love Lyra's world, I love the concept of daemons and the subtle knife and all of the environment, and Golden Compass/ Northern Lights is not bad at all. However I think the series is a downward slope where it becomes less about the story and more about Pullman's point. Narnia was so good because you didn't need to read the allegory to love the books. There's no way to avoid the "message" behind HDM because it's so.... OMG in your face.

And I say this as a person who's very fond of alternate reality novels, dystopias, post-apocalyptic, other-worldly fascist societies etc... so the fact that "The Church" is the "bad guy" doesn't inherently bother me. But it was less "Look a story" and more "don't you see my POINT, it's BIG, and DRAMATIC, Religion is BAD"

That said, YMMV, because I've heard some people who love it, some who hated it and they ran the gamut from Conservative Christian to atheist on both sides. I'm just kind of "meh" about it.

eragon was painful...

That's at least 2 hrs of my life I regret...a movie that looked like it was directed by a 15 years from a story a 12 year old wrote....nothing even remotely original...

They should have called Eragon

Lord of the Star Wars: The Fellowship of the Blue Dragon

Drolefille · #3 12-14-2007, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DaemonSeid

eragon was painful...

That's at least 2 hrs of my life I regret...a movie that looked like it was directed by a 15 years from a story a 12 year old wrote....nothing even remotely original...

They should have called Eragon

Lord of the Star Wars: The Fellowship of the Blue Dragon

Oh I refused to watch the movie.

If anyone dislikes Eragon, or enjoys snarky commentary there's a site out there that "sporked" Eragon and even rewrote certain chapters to show how they could be made not to suck.

It also points out thing like how Eragon is somehow drawing a bow and holding several extra arrows, so he probably has three hands, and how they push the horses so far and hard without feeding them or anything that they're probably zombie horses.

And I found the link http://eragon-sporkings.wikispaces.com/