Title: Clockwork
Author: Philip Pullman
Illustrator: Leonid Gore
Genre: Fantasy
I’ve always felt that Philip Pullman has been upstaged by J. K. Rowling, and His Dark Materials never got the attention it deserved. Harry Potter enjoyable, but Pullman’s work is a lot more interesting to me by virtue of its being a lot more morally ambiguous and subtle. While both authors appeal to similar age groups, I find Rowling to be mostly black-and-white and a bit heavy-handed with her messages. I think that Pullman’s work is a much better transition into complex, adult literature, without a lot of the explicit adult subjects that kids might not be ready for.
The title is a great example of the layers worked into the story. Set in Enlightenment Germany, the it starts like the winding of a clock, with a sense of inevitability, even if we’re not exactly sure what it is that’s inevitable. The title also refers to the sense of predestination that slides through and around the story, and more concretely, the role that clockwork mechanisms play in the story. It’s not quite full-blown clockpunk, but you can see it from here.
Part of the complexity is inherent in the fact that Clockwork is one of those stories that is based on different points of view, so that no one but the reader knows the entire story. The different perspectives are extremely well integrated, and even the transitions are seamless. This isn’t easy to do in a full-length novel, and Pullman manages it in about 100 pages, and keeps the story progressing handily even as it jumps around in time. The characters develop primarily as a result of fateful decisions, and even though it’s a fantasy setting, the universality of a life-changing choice—particularly one with unexpected consequences—is well played out. It’s very cinematic, and I can easily see it as a screenplay, along the lines of Coraline.
Overall, it has much more of a feel of a fairy tale specifically written for adults. Neil Gaiman comes to mind again, with Stardust, as Emma Bull.