The Imagination Chamber: Philip Pullman's breathtaking return to the world of His Dark Materials

I admit I was a little skeptical of this myself, but I was pleasantly surprised when I received my copy. It's a beautiful book, and a nice addition to any Pullman library. Yes, it is slight - for those who thought it was going to be the third volume in the Book of Dust trilogy, I don't know what to tell you - and I suppose you could see it as a cash grab, but I personally am pretty enchanted.As someone noted, you can probably read it in five or ten minutes - I mean, maybe, if you were trying really hard. But why? That would miss the point. I see this as poetry, and as Pullman always recommends with poetry, its best when read aloud. The back of the book advises one to "read carefully, linger over each particle of story," and that sound advice. And actually I just love the central metaphor here of a stories as charged particles only visible when seen in an imagination chamber. And that's what they are, and should be experienced as. Some have found their way into publications as lantern slides, but some haven't, and it's always nice to catch little glimpses of Lyra, Will, Asriel, Coulter, Malcolm, Alice, etc. I mentioned poetry, and these are kind of like haiku. Just like pebbles dropped in your mind that, if you let them, settle deeply and cause charming little ripples.And as for the language, I mean, when Pullman mentions a storyteller watching "a story growing out in every direction like frost on a window pane" .... well, that's poetry to me.

Little text. In terms of content this "book" is hardly more than a pamphlet. You are left with the impression you have paid nearly a penny a word.

Am a devoted Pullman fan.. this book was a surprise.. Is proving to be an inspiration on many levels of awareness.. Magic it is!

I'm a fan of Pullman's _His Dark Materials_ trilogy, particularly the ideas around Dust, and ideas that marry contemporary mathematics & physics with mysticism. The Imagination Chamber is a collection of poetic fragments, momentary character insights, bits of thought that pertain to Pullman's novels. I enjoyed it and did not grudge the price, but this is absolutely NOT the book to start off with.

I am a passionate fan of Pullman's works and will happily purchase every book he publishes. In this case, I feel quite cheated and disrespected. Most of the short passages in this book were already published in the HDM trilogy as Lantern Slides. There are a few new ones, but no more than a handful. I'm taken aback by the cynical opportunism of this volume. Shame on the publishers and on Pullman for participating.

Brevity is said to be the soul of wit; by that yardstick, this must be a very witty book indeed.Essentially, it is a sketchbook, of Pullman's ideas about his characters. But whoever decided it was a good idea to publish it and price it where it is was sadly mistaken. There is very little here. I 'read' it in a few minutes.What a disappointment, and what a sad reflection on the author, who must have approved this being published. I will still buy the third volume of the Dust trilogy- wouldn't miss it- but frankly I think the author and publishing company owe all of us an apology for what is a blatant money grab. Rather shameful, really.

I figured this would be a novella or extended story, like Once Upon a Time in the North. Instead it's a collection of fragments — a few disconnected sentences or paragraphs — that are utterly uninteresting to even this devoted Pullman fan.

largely blank pages with only a few sentences. I understand he's showing us his inner process, but this would have sufficed as a web page.

The media could not be loaded.  I’m so so so disappointed in this book, it is a very beautifully done, such a pretty book to hold in my hand but its missing pages between 39 to 57 and it’s repeating pages 57 to 71 AFTER page 71, I really like Philip Pullman’s work so I wanted to have all of his books on hardcover but this really threw me off, if you can just buy the ebook version on Google, it has a very beautiful presentation though but just save your money, I am not from the UK/US so I’m keeping this book, maybe it’s the only one like this or maybe there’s some other books like mine out there be wary!!

x

Zurück geschickt sobald ich es öffnete. Im Gegensatz zu anderen Rezensionen hatte ich ein meist leeres Buch mit kleinen Textfragmenten erwartet, ähnlich den „Lantern Slides“, die in den neueren englischen Veröffentlichungen von „His Dark Materials“ zu finden sind. Ich hatte jedoch nicht erwartet, dass der Inhalt dieses Buches weitgehend identisch mit diesen „Lantern Slides“ sein würde! Also das Geld überhaupt nicht wert. Die einzigen Leute, die es kaufen sollten, wären Sammler. Ich verstehe nicht, warum es nicht einfach als „Lantern Slides“ herausgegeben würde, dann war’s von Anfang an deutlich gewesen worum es geht.

Not sure how Amazon thinks it is 96 pages. The last numbered page is 85 and all the left pages are blank. If I could all the text it adds up to 15 pages. Shame on the publishing company and shame on Philip Pullman.And Amazons offers it now for € 17 with a list price of € 21,95. Not sure what currency rate Amazon uses (in the UK the list price is GBP 12,99.I was "lucky" to pre-order it for € 9,30, but I feel cheated because of the content.

Rubbish. Money for absolutely nothing. I have never been so disappointed. I waited for this for ages and it is a scam to call it a book!