Amber Spyglass and members

[Simon]

Amy Z: "Simon, those are great points--I agree with a lot of your
criticisms.  I want to do some mulling and responding, so it might be a
couple of days."

I took over a day to think about and write my e-mail. With such topics it is
necessary to do some research first. I might have been a little over the top
with my criticisms of The Amber Spyglass, but feel it is a fair indication
of how disappointed I was with the book.


Amy Z: "However I will take two seconds to say that I really, really
disliked that the unequivocally evil characters are all Churchmen and almost
all of the Church people are unequivocally evil.
Yuck.  Someone had a bad childhood religious experience and needs to get
over it, don't you think?  (And it is ironic that he dislikes Lewis so much,
because they share the flaw of a slavish attitude toward the Church, whether
pro or con.)"

He mentions in one of the online interviews that I have read (sorry cannot
remember which) about his childhood and The Church. His unhappy experience
affects his story telling in this series, but I gather this is a momentary
blip and some of his other books are ok.


Sarah: "Hi! I'm new so please don't flame me if I should be discussing this
somewhere else. I waited for AS for ages with great anticipation and got it
last week. After reading it I found myself feeling very disappointed with
it, and I'm glad others feel the same way (or one other). It turned out to
be more of a rant against the Church than a continuation of a highly
enjoyable story. I felt that the Lyra/Will relationship was ridiculous. At
12 and whatever age Will is, they should not have been talking about
spending the rest of their lives together, that's way too mature.
I still think that PP is a master storyteller and NL/GC and SK are the best
two books I've read. They inspired me to try HP actually, though I'm not
exactly sure how."

With the thoughtful questions and comments I see no reason for any flames. I
was in a slightly different position. I started to read the series after the
third book was released (I am talking His Dark materials here but it is true
for HP as well) and so had none of the waiting around. PP shows great
ability and the first two books are very good and some of the best books I
have read recently. The third failed big time.

I got into HP from revising for exams. Needed a distraction to waste away
the evenings (rather than living in a pub or annoying others who were trying
to work!) and HP provided it. Then got in the way of my revision when I
started joining all the HP groups. Might have to run away from them all soon
so that I can revise a little better this time round! :(



Kelley (thanks for the American / British links): "Oh, that probably is him
[Nick].  I remember way back when I first joined, he seemed much more
active.  I skipped around a bit in the archives and found so many names I
recognized, but haven't seen in such a long time.  A shame..."

It looks as if he is lurking. He posted to the main group earlier,
concerning the movie. I think we will probably here more as the hype for the
movie kicks in over the next few months! I think that when the group gets
stupidly busy that many cannot cope and go and hibernate for a while. Some
do not return, but many do.



Simon
--
"Welcome to my temporary abode, Slayer." the leader said with a sweeping
bow. "Allow me to introduce myself - I am Simon Branford." - Ginny The
Vampire Slayer - Season 1, Episode 3: The Curse Of Simon Branford by Keith
Fraser -
http://www.fanfiction.net/index.fic?action=story-read&storyid=132489