UNspoiled! His Dark Materials UNspoiled! Network

This was one of my favorite series, and my first audiobook as a 6th grader, but I didn't really appreciate it until I was an adult. With the release of the TV show I finally got around to rereading, and quickly added this podcast to my list of old UNspoileds to listen to. It is so fun listening to Natasha and Owen rehash His Dark Materials, and they are very cute together. I was definitely connecting more with Natasha on most opinions of the series, and some reviewers can be critical of Owen, but honestly, is a different view not what we come to Unspoiled for? I was a little bummed he wasn't enjoying as much as I wanted him to, but as someone else who was raised religiously but then "left", I can understand Owens criticism, and I probably would have felt similar had I not read this series as a young person. I do appreciate his references to The Name of the Wind, and maybe Owen will cover the Kingkiller Chronicle with Natasha being the Unspoiled? I would love that. Good job, you two!

I am not saying that there aren’t good things about this podcast, because there are! I love how Owen’s perspective is very different from Natasha’s, so this isn’t just an echo chamber of “I love this!” all the time (that can be so tiresome.) But my biggest issue is just how big of a nay-sayer Owen can be. He is very much a nitpicker with this series, and I think a lot of that has to do with his negative experiences with the Church (don’t get me wrong, there’s a lot to hate about organized religion and I sympathize deeply with that as a queer person who had to unlearn the resulting internalized homophobia) and the fact that he doesn’t really connect with children as characters. I almost didn’t make it through some of the earliest episodes because of his overwhelming dislike of the first book’s protagonists. I feel like he is less willing to entertain the impossible, maybe? Which this series does require a bit of. Still, I did not hate listening, and I was glad to find a podcast that covered this at all.

I decided I needed to read His Dark Materials before the TV show came out. I was really enjoying the book and when I enjoy books, I like listening to a podcast dedicated to the books (E.g.- A Podcast of Ice & Fire & Wheel of Time Spoilers amongst others). The two hosts have interesting conversations, even when they go off on a tangent. I like that they’re honest about the faults of the books. Or when they disagree (makes the conversation better, I think). No book is perfect so it’s always nice to hear why someone didn’t like a particular chapter, character, etc.

I hope they cover future books set in that universe and/or the upcoming TV show. Apparently, they have other book and tv show podcasts that I’m now curious about. I’ll probably check those out after I’ve finished these episodes.