In part one I took a look at the complexities and details of Pullman’s many worlds theory that the trilogy revolves around. No doubt this aspect of the books have intrigued many fans as it did myself. But I think there was something deeper and far more fascinating about Pullman’s worlds that makes him stand out above the ordinary authors and rank among the masters.

Pullman’s worlds are not just our own world masked with a few differences here and there, usually in the form of magic. So much of the fantasy genre is saturated with our own world, with the only difference being the presence of magic in one form or another. What’s wrong with that, you ask? Well nothing really, but I’ve always been one who wants something more creative, something that strives deeper. The worlds in His Dark Materials do this. All of the worlds in the trilogy are fascinating examples of what a creative human mind can come up with. They are populated by daemons, armored bears, Gallivespians and Mulefa. Epic wars are fought beneath their skies by angels, witches and specters.

The worlds of His Dark Materials go deeper than most fantasy worlds. They are filled to the brim with characters who we, as the readers, all loved or hated. They were real people in those worlds, whether they were in the wise eyes of the Master of Jordan College, the proud courage of the Chevalier Tialys, the simple kindness and caring of the Mulefa, or the love of Will and Lyra. These worlds are not populated by the stale extras and stereotypes of the fantasy genre- they were and are populated by people we ourselves know, whether in real life or in the dream-like memory of another time and place that we all still retain deep in our hearts and minds.

Pullman is not the first, and he will probably not be the last author to use parallel worlds in his stories. But there are very few who will use this concept as well as he did. He made us believe it was real, and, if his theories are true, perhaps somewhere it was. Much as I enjoy the Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkien, I think Pullman did just as well over the course of seven years what it took Tolkien to do in fifty. There was just as much reality in His Dark Materials as there was in Lord of the Rings, and perhaps a little bit more, if truth be told. I for one can say I cared far more for Lyra and Will than I ever did for Frodo and Sam. Pullman captured something, some essence of the human mind or heart that eluded Tolkien in all his writings.

And what about C.S. Lewis, author of The Chronicles of Narnia, whose work Pullman hates with a passion? Lewis was closer to that essence than Tolkien was, but still I think Pullman won out. I enjoyed Narnia a great deal, and I also enjoyed its message, yet I think Lewis failed to capture humanity at its core like Pullman has. Pullman captured humanity at its peaks and its summits, the best of times and the worst of times. He painted with his words so accurately our loves and our hates, our laughter and our tears.

It was with these elements, these “dark materials” that he created the worlds in his story. A world is not built with empires and their falls, war and peace, kings or slaves. Worlds are built with human souls. Their rivers flow with human tears, their mountains soar with human strengths, their desert suns blaze with human pains, their cities are built with human dreams, their graveyards with broken ones. All the names and places are empty, vacant and meaningless without the souls behind them and in them.

It was not the concept of other worlds that made us love His Dark Materials. It was the fact that we saw ourselves in the souls that built those other worlds. All of the armored bears, gallivespians, witches, angels and mulefa were people, in their actions their thoughts and their words. They were not some pretty ornament to stand to the side while the human characters did their thing. They were people too, and that is what brought them and their worlds to life. So many other fantasy books imitate our world in their attempt to create their own worlds, but they miss the key element of the people. They see only the empires and the kings, the wars and the times of peace, the power of the king or his slave. They don’t see the truth that Pullman has captured: A world is nothing without real people to live in it.

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