Reviews"These essays cast a spell. . . . To read them is to be invigorated by the company of a joyfully wide-ranging, endlessly curious and imaginative mind." -- The New York Times Book Review "Inspiration can be hard to come by, but on the pages of this essay collection, you can find it in long, deep, refreshing draughts. . . . The essays brim with joy and curiosity--about literature, storytelling, music, science, the universe, and humanity itself." --Laura Miller, Slate "A splendid collection . . . literary insights that will enrich and inspire." -- The Wall Street Journal "[ Daemon Voices ] reads as if you're having a highly illuminating conversation with a genius about how the storytelling sausage is made. It's a portrait of a writer turned inside out, and anyone involved in the same endeavor will feel slightly less insane for having read it." -- Santa Fe New Mexican "Remarkably astute. . . . A wonderful distillation of decades of writing and thinking about what goes into storytelling. Like his best books, it has a richness of ideas in its wide breadth of topics and illuminating conclusions."-- The A. V. Club "Pullman offers meaty but always lucidly argued ruminations on the nature of story. . . . Infused with abundant wisdom, provocative notions, and illuminating insights." -- Kirkus Reviews (starred) "Pullman addresses 'the business of the storyteller' with the quiet confidence of a master craftsman sharing the tricks of his trade. . . . The essays delineate and defend the real work of fiction to nourish imagination, shape moral understanding, and, above all, delight. . . . The book is a toolbox stacked with generous, sensible advice." -- Publishers Weekly
Dewey Decimal809/.93353
SynopsisFrom the internationally best-selling author of the His Dark Materials trilogy, a spellbinding journey into the secrets of his art--the narratives that have shaped his vision, his experience of writing, and the keys to mastering the art of storytelling. One of the most highly acclaimed and best-selling authors of our time now gives us a book that charts the history of his own enchantment with story--from his own books to those of Blake, Milton, Dickens, and the Brothers Grimm, among others--and delves into the role of story in education, religion, and science. At once personal and wide-ranging, Daemon Voices is both a revelation of the writing mind and the methods of a great contemporary master, and a fascinating exploration of storytelling itself.