Rating: 
Summary: Beyond Redemption
Review: Many of the people who like this trilogy try to defend it against the attacks. In all fairness, this series takes a dramatically anti-Christian stance (slowly at first, and climatically near the end, as if the tension of the plot and the vileness of faith are exposed in parallel). Christians do well to avoid it, unless they're willing to be offended.However, this series has the potential to show through fiction what hundreds of angry essays have failed to communicate - that the war we fight is not "good against evil," or "order against chaos," but rather knowledge against ignorance. However, this moral isn't dropped heavy-handed. Rather, the books characters, plotline, and subtly alien worldview (a culture almost exactly like our own, only without any real division between magic, science and theology) engross the reader without regard to the reader's metaphysical stance.
Rating: 
Summary: Depressing
Review: These look like children's books, but I'd burn it before I'd let a child read it. Well told ...but where Harry Potter teachs about loyalty and bravery, here the message is that your mother may be a murderer, and you'd better not trust anyone.... Sad.
Rating:
Summary: Without stories, we wouldn't be human beings at all
Review: I am reading something now that is a lot of fun, and great writing: the "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman. It's a series of young-adult novels with multiple worlds and realities and an eventual battle against God or "The Authority", lived mostly through the eyes of two kids, Lyra and Will. Everyone in Lyra's universe has a daemon, which is kind of like a physical manifestation of your soul, usually in animal form. In some ways it is like the shamanic power animal that's always with you, or a witch's familiar, but even more "you" than any of those things. The author's imagination is rich and his storytelling superb. Highly recommended!
Rating:
Summary: Excellent writing, plot, style, and moral
Review: Pullman's books are fantastic, and while they may take Milton's Paradise Lost and choose a different side to win, I think they make a good point. The story is beautifully written, with a instant immersion into a world so interesting you are immediately caught up into the story. The plot itself is a parody of Milton's, but this time instead of emphasizing goodness as suffering, pain and misery it emphasizes goodness as tolerance, joy and love. It is not surprising that religious fanatics have panned this book, because Pullman dissects the message of Christ away from the institutions that have brutalized it to their own advantage. If they looked beyond his anti-clerical viewpoint they would see his message is more spiritual, and closer to pure Christianity than the chronicles of Narnia or the writings of any other author who has attempted to capture the essential Christian myths in the fantasy genre. In other words, Christians who understand the message of Christ will get it and love it (many I know have). Those who worship the walls and stones of the church will not.
Rating:
Summary: Golden Explosion
Review: Ok, i've read through many of the reviews and in a few there is an obvious dislike of this trilogy for reasons of literary "flaws." I agree that there is a lacking of information in some areas and a general lacking of characterizations and explainations of complicated events, yet to me, literature of this sort is a means of sparking ideas into the readers and open their imaginations to new planes of thought. When you read with your mind open and your heart too, everything flows quite wonderfully, and Pullman paints a wonderfully brilliant world full of life and movement at every turn. Personally i think the plot is golden and very very BIG...perhaps that is why Pullman was unable to tie together every loose end he had created, but that is no reason to shun such a wonderful and explosive novel. Yes, i would have liked to see a few different things happen in the third book, yet I would still recommend this trilogy to anyone. This is one of the most exciting and profound fantasy/sci-fi series i've read since i don't know when. OH and just a message to all you conservative people, Loosen UP! People who reject this book because of it's theme and message really didn't understand it at all, read it yourself...And i DO think this is an excellent read for both adults AND kids alike. (especially teens.)
Rating: 
Summary: Tight!!
Review: Ok, ok, I know there are like ten zillion reviews of this trilogy, but I have to give my 2 cents. Anyway, these are seriously cool books. The first one is THE GOLDEN COMPASS. It is about this girl, lyra, who lives at this big cool sounding college and spends her days running around and wreaking havoc who learns about this mysterious particle called (mega-imaginatively) "Dust" from her uncle, Lord Asriel. Then her friend roger gets kidnapped, and she goes on this quest to save him from a grisly fate and to learn more about Dust.(I am describing the barest essentials here) Along the way, she gets mixed up with withches, armored bears, soul eating specters, angels, God, mulefa, and more. (Well, most of the things I just mentioned are in the next two books). THE SUBTLE KNIFE and THE AMBER SPYGLASS are the next two books, but it is very very difficult to talk about the plots of them without giving too much away. plus, there are so many original and compelling elements about HDM that no-one could even begin to fully describe it in a review. Everything fits together in the end in the most ingenious way imaginable. Also, I love Philip Pullman's writing style. It is very rich and detailed, and you never get bored of it.
The Golden Compass had a few inconsistencies in the setting, though. Like why are there zeppelins in a place with no cars? These books are compared frequently to the Narnia books, and all I will say is that fantasy-adventure wise, HDM makes Narnia look like the Teletubbies.
However, I expected God to be a more complex character (not just blatantly evil). I think it would have added lots of philosophical stuff to the plot.
Also: if you like your books to be phisically beautiful and elegant, buy the Knopf editions w/ the covers by Eric Rohmann. They are much prettier.
Rating:
Summary: What I expected, what I got.
Review: I wasn't sure if I wanted to read this or not, but after seeing how much it ... off the religious zealots out there, I knew it couldn't be all bad. Thinking that, I read all three. I wasn't disappointed in the least. Not only were they good books with good stories, they were wonderfully contemptuous of religion in general, christianity in particular. It was what I had expected and more. Definitely delivered what I wanted. ...
Rating:
Summary: Depth
Review: These books are on the very top of my list. I have read them each twice and each time finding new depth and meaning to every word. As an avid reader i have found nothing more enjoyable to many ages as the Dark Materials Trilogy. It is a must-read book for everyone no matter what the beleifs. His portrayal of each religion is superior in its content and deliverance. There are no equals to these books and give it only the highest praise. YOU MUST READ THESE BOOKS!!
Rating:
Summary: The Golden Compass is the BOMB!
Review: The Golden Compass is such a great book to read.I can't get my eyes off the book,I just keep on reading.I really excited because I just started reading the second one.Lyra seems like a real person to me.I like the way Lyra's world is,having daemons.Now that totally rocks.This book is just full of surprises.
Rating:
Summary: Just an amazing series
Review: Philip Pullman has undertaken one of the most ambitious young adult series that I have ever read. Along with being just a very creative adventure/fantasy story, Pullman addresses a huge variety of universal questions and themes. God, religion, the origins of the universe, war. He has the nerve to call the church in his world corrupt and completely lost from the original purpose and mission it intended. He has adult characters who have major personality flaws, and greedy ambitions - who manage to redeem themselves in the end in a way that doesn't clear their deeds of the past.
The book has a strong female lead character, and several other stong female characters throughout the books. One of the strong female characters is very complex, ambitious and greedy. Pullman makes her pretty dislikable throughout the book, yet her role turns out to be very important to the side of good. It is rare to see anywhere in literature a character like this pulled off so well.
I am highly impressed that this book addresses the issues it does, and forms opinions that don't go where you would expect them to go. More amazing that this is a kid's book - I think that this book would have received alot of slack even if adults were its official target.
These books are truly unique and I am excited they exist for young adults (or younger if you are a precocious reader). I am a big fan of Harry Potter and these books seriously rival that series. It certainly is braver in taking on the themes it does in not so black and white of a manner.
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