{
  "export": {
    "source": "https://urth.darkrealm.vip/thread/urth/2745",
    "note": "Exported from an unofficial mirror of a public mailing list. Copyright in each message remains with the person who wrote it.  Email addresses are obscured as `user at host`, the form the original archive published. This file was rebuilt from parsed fields rather than retained headers, so it is faithful in content but not byte-exact.",
    "addresses": "obscured as 'user at host'"
  },
  "archive": "urth",
  "thread": {
    "id": 2745,
    "subject": "The Golden Compass",
    "messages": 1,
    "voices": 1,
    "first": "2001-08-01T21:24:38+00:00",
    "last": "2001-08-01T21:24:38+00:00"
  },
  "messages": [
    {
      "message_id": "<urth-v0030-0580@digest.urth.net>",
      "from": {
        "name": "Jesper Svedberg",
        "address": "jesper.svedberg at mailbox.swipnet.se"
      },
      "date": "2001-08-01T21:24:38+00:00",
      "subject": "(urth) The Golden Compass",
      "in_reply_to": null,
      "reply_link": null,
      "blocks": [
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "From: \"Alice Turner\" <pei047 at attglobal.net>\nSaid Dan'l re =The Golden Compass=:"
        },
        {
          "kind": "quote",
          "depth": 1,
          "text": "I think it just might be the best juvenile, and even the best fantasy of\nthe 20th century. Contenders, please? (Single books, only.)"
        },
        {
          "kind": "text",
          "depth": 0,
          "text": "Well, I haven't read _The Amber Spyglass_ yet, but I have to say that I\nthought the series that far was good, perhaps very good, but not as\nearth shattering as some seem to have found it. There are at least two\nauthors of juveniles that I would rate higher than Pullman, Diana Wynne\nJones and the brilliant, but sadly forgotten Geraldine Harris. Jones has\nwrittens lots of books and naturally not everything is as good, but she\nhas written a couple of novels that are great, most notably _Archer's\nGoon_, _Howl's Moving Castle_ and my own favourite, _The Lives of\nChristopher Chant_ (which resembles _The Golden Compass_ quite a bit,\nI've always wondered if it's been an influence on Pullman). Nothing\nshe's written is quite as ambitious as His Dark Material, but I think\nshe is a superior craftsman. Harris wrote a wonderful series called The\nSeven Citadels, starting with _Prince of the Godborn_. Another writer\nwho seems to get a lot of respect for his juveniles is Alan Garner, but\nI haven't read any of his books.\nIf we're talking of fantasy in general, I don't think that _The Golden\nCompass_ would stand up very well. I'd take any of Jack Vance's\nfantasies over it any day and the same goes for the Gormenghast Trilogy,\n_Tigana_ and _The Lions of Al-Rassan_ by Guy Gavriel Kay, _The Anubis\nGates_ by Tim Powers and anything by Lord Dunsany (and if we're\nstretching the definition of fantasy a bit, a lot of the work of Borges\nor Calvino).\n\n\nI saw that _Peace_ is going to be reprinted in the UK by Gollancz next\nyear, probably in the Fantasy Masterworks series (a really good list if\nyou're looking for contenders for the title of best fantasy of the 20th\ncentury, and if we're going by their definition of fantasy, BotNS is\nanother novel that beats _The Golden Compass_) along with a collection\nof Clark Ashton Smith stories, Vance's _Sultrun's Garden_ (finally) and\nJohn M. Ford's _The Dragon Waiting_.\n\n\n  // Jesper Svedberg"
        }
      ]
    }
  ]
}