Chaos Reading discussion

WHEN
Discussion Starts: Sunday 30 September, 2012

WHAT
The winner of the "Define Magic" theme poll: The Golden Compass *NOTE: The book was released as "Northern Lights" but has been renamed in the US.

HOW
On 30 September, I'll start a new discussion thread for this, with a spoiler warning. I might throw in a few suggested discussion topics to get the ball rolling as well. In the meantime, people can stop by this thread to chat as they go, or to post links to Bonus Materials (articles readers might find interesting about the book or author) but no spoilers until discussion opens please.

ABOUT THE BOOK:
399 pages, first published 1996.
This is generally considered a Young Adult Fantasy/SciFi novel.

Awards: For Northern Lights, Pullman won both the annual Carnegie Medal for British children's books and the annual Guardian Children's Fiction Prize, a similar award that authors may not win twice. Six books have won both awards in 45 years.
In the U.S., The Golden Compass was named Booklist Editors Choice – Top of the List, Publishers Weekly Book of the Year, a Horn Book Fanfare Honor Book, and a Bulletin Blue Ribbon Book.

Synopsis: Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

Sounds great, can't wait!!

I think I'm definitely due for a re-read of this.

I love this book. Will be a pleasure to re-read. :)

I've never read this, might have to get hold of a copy and give it a go :)

Already own a (not very) beautiful (but very loved) copy :D

I have to admit, the cover turned me off to the point that I pretty much immediately dismissed this one. An orphan (and yes, I could tell he was an orphan from the picture) riding a polar bear is exactly what I never want to read about!

You're all changing my mind though :)

I probably never would have read these if the 'orphan riding a polar bear' cover was the first one I saw. I am sorry I have now seen it at all. They are great books, and you will know pretty fast if you're going to like them. I would say these are books that have an orphan and a polar bear for people who don't read books with orphans and polar bears. (And, btw, the bears are AWESOME).

They are very critical of organized religion, as a warning for those who are easily offended by such things.

Yay I might get to participate in this discussion! I have read this book twice but it has been awhile. Still have a copy of it. Actually have a book that contains all 3 books in one collection with the orphan and the bear on the cover. We'll see how much of it I remember.

Oh and as Whitney said the bears are incredibly awesome!

Whitney wrote: "They are very critical of organized religion, as a warning for those who are easily offended by such things. "

I'm not, but he's worse than "critical of organized religion", he makes a religion of it, and imo that's unforgivable. I've read the whole series, and I enjoyed them, but I'd have enjoyed them far more if he could have kept the preaching out of it.

Derek wrote: "I'm not, but he's worse than "critical of organized religion", he makes a religion of it, and imo that's unforgivable. I've read the whole series, and I enjoyed them, but I'd have enjoyed them far more if he could have kept the preaching out of it. ..."

I can't really argue with this. There was a quote in a Heinrich Boll book where a character says he's not an atheist because they're too religious for him, I think Pullman may fit that bill. I personally didn't find the preachiness too overwhelming until the third book, although I'm sure it helped that I largely share the attitude if (hopefully) not the preachiness.

I once expressed annoyance at the overtly Christian themes in "The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe" and got a blank stare from a Catholic friend who had no idea what I was talking about. Depends on what pushes your buttons, I guess.

Whitney wrote: "I personally didn't find the preachiness too overwhelming until the third book..."

I guess I didn't either, or I wouldn't have got through them all!

Fortunately, I was in my Christian phase when I read the Narnia books. I still love rereading them.

Crap. I still don't have a copy, and I'm reading House of Leaves still. I might have to get the ebook and read it this week while I'm "out bush". Is it a quick read?

Ruh roh. No Kindle edition - just audio. It looks like one of the better audiobooks I've seen, but I still don't like them as a medium.

Ruby wrote: "Ruh roh. No Kindle edition - just audio. It looks like one of the better audiobooks I've seen, but I still don't like them as a medium."

I see it on Amazon US, can you not download from any Amazon site to anywhere in world?

No. You only see what's available in your country on Amazon US (or any of the other Amazon sites). You can also only download from whatever Amazon site your country is linked to. So for Australia it's Amazon US site, but you only get the books that are included for Australian sale. :(

Brilliant - you can download a copy to anywhere in the world from the pirate sites, but you can't legally acquire a copy, probably due to some ridiculous international copyright regulation.

Whitney wrote: "Brilliant - you can download a copy to anywhere in the world from the pirate sites, but you can't legally acquire a copy, probably due to some ridiculous international copyright regulation."

Not strictly. It's because a publisher buys geographical rights, and _agrees_ not to sell to places they don't have rights. I love to talk trash about Amazon in particular, but I expect that it would be a nightmare for them to try to sell every book currently in print, only to people for who a particular publication is in the same geographical area. One hopes that in the fairly near future, the whole idea of geographical rights to electronic editions will just fall into the void, and publishers will either buy worldwide e-rights, or - better - the authors will be able to retain the e-rights to themselves.

Derek wrote: " I love to talk trash about Amazon in particular, but I expect that it would be a nightmare for them to try to sell every book currently in print, only to people for who a particular publication is in the same geographical area..."

I'm not following, why is there an agreement that selling ebooks, but not hard copies, is restricted in different parts of the world?

Hardcopies work the same way. The rights to a book are sold by location. So a different publisher may have the rights in the US to Australia, UK etc etc.

Whitney wrote: "I'm not following, why is there an agreement that selling ebooks, but not hard copies, is restricted in different parts of the world? "

As Ruby has said, all rights are sold geographically, it's just that when you have a bricks-and-mortar distribution network, it's not so obvious that you can't buy an Australian edition in Canada. It's still based on "agreement" between publishers - an Australian distributor would probably refuse to ship books to a retailer in Canada, but in that case it's also often backed up by trade tarriffs: duties imposed on imported books.

The situation is sure to change for e-books in the next few years. There are still authors under contract whose contracts never even considered the possibility of e-books. They just granted "all" rights. I like to hope that the publishing industry is as bad at predicting the future of downloading as the music industry, and starts letting authors retain electronic rights, because publishers can't see a way to make money from them.
[Note that I didn't use the US and Canada for examples, because the fact is that while most books are "simultaneously published" in Canada and the US, the "real" publisher is in the US, and almost all of our books come from there - I bet the same holds in Australia and New Zealand]

Not sure about the NZ thing, except that Australian editions always have the Aus and the NZ recommended retail price on the back. So that probably supports the theory.

Yay! I finally have an exude to read this! :P

This will be interesting. I read this when it came out and it did not live up to the hype in my mind. Maybe I will feel differently this time.

Derek wrote: "As Ruby has said, all rights are sold geographically, it's just that when you have a bricks-and-mortar distribution network, it's not so obvious that you can't buy an Australian edition in Canada..."

I've never had any trouble the few times I've ordered British or Canadian editions of books, which is why I'm confused about the regulations. Maybe they just don't enforce them as rigidly for the hard copies? Sorry - I imagine everyone is getting bored with this discussion of the minutia of international copyright.

Hehe. As it turns out I wasn't able to even get a copy from the library, so I'll have to jump in to the discussion at a later date, I think. Does anyone else want to moderate this one? I'm just thinking it'd best to have someone who has actually read the book leading the discussion this time!

I will join this read too. Maybe I will end reading trilogy who knows.

Okay guys: Discussion is now officially open!

Since I wasn't able to acquire this one in time:
If anyone would like to kick this one off with a couple of questions for the group, I'd be most appreciative. I've started a fresh thread.....
:)