His Dark Materials thread thoughts

October 31, 2019 4:56 PM

Before HBO's 'His Dark Materials' series starts on Monday, I thought it might be good to have a Fanfare Talk thread going for book vs show spoiler discussions, to avoid the actual episode threads going off into derails or unhappiness -- the question being, will the 'books included' threads encompass the original trilogy only, or also the new 'Book of Dust' books?
posted by oh yeah! (9 comments total)

I'm sure I'll be posting a 'show only' and a 'books included' thread on Monday if nobody else beats me to it, but I've only read the original trilogy and haven't gotten around to the new 'Book of Dust' series or any of the companion books that came out in between the two series.

Without getting into specific spoilers - for those who have read the new trilogy, do you expect that you're going to want/need to talk about plot details of the newer trilogy in the 'Books Included' threads? I'm not sure how much I care about being spoiled -- probably not a super amount, since I haven't been curious enough about them yet to read them, and the last book of the trilogy isn't out yet, so if it does end up bothering me I can get caught up on the first two before it does come out. But I figured it would be good to see what the consensus is here rather than doing it on Monday.
posted by oh yeah! at 5:18 PM on October 31, 2019

I think anyone who posts in a Books Included thread should be prepared for spoilers and shouldn't view the thread if that's not something they're up for right now.
posted by MoonOrb at 9:25 PM on October 31, 2019 [5 favorites]

I have read the two new books from the book of the dust series but it's impossible to say if I would feel moved to discuss spoilers from them or not until I see what the TV show does. I would imagine it will hew close to the original books but who knows?
posted by roolya_boolya at 2:30 AM on November 2, 2019

I think "books included" should be open to including material from "Book of Dust" if it comes up in the TV series.


[very vague spoiler for TV series]

I saw the first episode, and it seems that it does have a reference to La Belle Sauvage, but I haven't reread His Dark Materials in years, so it is possible that it is something that was referenced in the original books.
posted by betweenthebars at 11:04 AM on November 2, 2019

Slight wrinkle worth mentioning, it actually starts on Sunday (today) here in the UK.

I'd kneejerk prefer Books Inc to be the original trilogy only, but honestly including the new ones is fine too.
posted by I'm always feeling, Blue at 10:44 PM on November 2, 2019 [1 favorite]

Slight wrinkle worth mentioning, it actually starts on Sunday (today) here in the UK.

Good to know. I might go ahead and start the threads today timed for the BBC broadcast time then, if no-one else does it first. Is it airing on Sundays for the whole UK run, or are we only going be out of sync for the premiere?
posted by oh yeah! at 4:26 AM on November 3, 2019

The idea of a "Books Included" thread not including ALL the books seems needlessly complicated. I think if you haven't read past the initial trilogy or you care about spoilers from books you haven't read yet then it would be safest to stick to the "show only" thread, of course being sure to not post spoilers there yourself.
posted by Mr.Encyclopedia at 2:44 PM on November 4, 2019 [2 favorites]

I agree with Mr.Encyclopedia completely. I haven't read the new books - I didn't even realize there WERE new books - and I don't love the idea of having them be spoiled, but it is a step too far to ask for "Old Books Included" and "All Books Included" threads.
posted by Rock Steady at 9:46 AM on November 5, 2019

I read La Belle Sauvage & I can't think of any game-changing twists that would somehow lessen the experience of reading it for the first time. It's just additional backstory for Lyra & her parents & her world. I don't think people need to go so far as avoiding the books-only threads for this.
posted by bleep at 11:17 AM on November 5, 2019