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Summary: Read These Immediately
Review: This series is incredibly well done. It is much darker than Harry Potter, but it satisfies on the same level. The goodies and the baddies aren't always easy to label, and there are surprising and sad twists and turns of the plot. There are also some interesting theological questions to think about without putting forth a religious ideology of any kind, and all this is tied up in a rip-snorting good story about people we'd love to know.
Orson Scott Card's "Ender's Game" and "Ender's Shadow" are good in this way also. Happy reading!
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Summary: the greatest books ever!!!!!
Review: This trilogy was absolutely amazing. I could never put it down! The way Pullman writes makes you get really attached to the characters.The endings were totally amazing! I honestly found Harry Potter really boring compared to this trilogy and everyone has to read these books!!! I have read many books since these ones and none of them have kept me in suspense as much as this trilogy!!!
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Summary: Great Series for both kids and adults!
Review: All three books are excellent. You don't want the books to end.
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Summary: Harry Potter eat your heart out!
Review: After demolishing the Harry Potter series, i was left empty and longing for the fifth book. I was given the Pullman trilogy by a friend to help me combat my "Potter Blues", and i was impressed!
Imagery that was exquisite with a story line to die for, and a new view on the way things could be... for all we know! very brave of Pullman to write a tirlogy such as this and direct it at the younger age group. This is on par with, if not better than, the likes of Narnia, Dickens, Rowling, Robert Lewis Stevenson etc. This is story for all ages and a real eye opener. Mr Pullman... MORE PLEASE
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Summary: Wonderfully original storytelling
Review: I have for many years been looking for a fantasy story that does something new. I recently found just that. Mr. Pullman writes in a wonderful style and is wildly imaginative in creating a rich tapestry of parallel worlds through which the characters of this trilogy travel. A book many think is for adolescents, I highly recommend this book to readers of any age who are looking for something captivating, and unique.
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Summary: Beware, it's a little more than it seems.
Review: The first two books were very written, spetacularly written in fact. The description and plot was incredible and the characters were likable. I finally got my hands on the third one, and I was very disappointed. He managed to tie up all the loose ends and the plot, but in my opinion it was a terrible way to end the book, and the whole idea that "Christianity is nothing but a very powerful and convincing lie" was very insulting to me.
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Summary: Amber Spyglass could do with having its lenses cleaned.
Review: Due to misuse of the Subtle knife by its creators and subsequent bearers, Dust is leaking from one world to another. And due to the abyss that was created from Lord Asriel's campaign against the Authority, all the worlds' Dust is in danger of passing into oblivion, destroying all conscious life. To stop this from happening, all of the windows, created with the Subtle Knife, in all the worlds, must be closed. The lovers, Lyra and Will, reluctantly accept that this has to be, and that they will be parted from each other for the rest of their lives in their own worlds where they and their daemons can enjoy a long life. But, as a compromise, the window that was created from the world of the Dead into the world of the Mulefa can be left open so that, like the ghosts that Lyra and Will have set free, they, too, will someday be re-united. There is quite a lot in the Amber Spyglass and its precursors to criticise. Mostly this would be to do with logical clarity and consistency from one book to the next, and the ever present misuse of mixed viewpoint. But would the nephews really notice these details. Probably not. And this is because they would be unlikely to persevere with a set of titles that really need to be considered as one long twelve hundred page book in order to get a hang of the inter-relationships. Simply skimming the action highlights wouldn't be recommended, since many of the highlights are only relevant when a subtle tie in from somewhere else is applied. Skimming would mean that they would miss a lot of the story's goodness. Compounding the problem is the schematic quality of many of the techno-thoecratic details that are also slightly contradictory, which, to the more experienced eye gives the impression of window dressing, they being too vague to spend the time on to make satisfactory sense of. All that aside, I did enjoy the three books overall. Philip Pullman's writing is very consistent in quality from the start of The Golden Compass to the end of The Amber Spyglass. But he could have spared the reader so much use of 'which' and 'too'. And he should have spent more time on clarity and less on a cast of thousands. The Dark Materials set is worth reading, but readers shouldn't beat themselves up about any misunderstanding of the inner detail. As for the nephews, I'll be recommending J. R. R. Tolkien's The Hobbit and C. J. Cherryh's The Paladin and The Goblin Mirror.
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Summary: Very uneven
Review: Pullman has a very fertile imagination, which has allowed him to populate these books with many unforgettable characters and ideas. Unfortunately, the pacing of the books is very uneven. There are some points (e.g. the ends of both the first and second books) that are just too frenetic, where what should have been a whole chapter gets condensed down to a single page in what seems like a rush to finish the volume. There are other points (most of the third book) where the plot drags intolerably. A little editing could have helped a lot in producing a more readable series. The other problem I have with the series is its increasingly allegorical storyline. It's not really noticeable in the first book, then starts to appear in the second and dominates the third. Quite honestly, I found the increasingly anti-religious tone pretty tiresome. Brust and Zelazny did a much better job in _To Reign in Hell_, which should also appeal to younger readers, and there are other examples of the same theme being handled better as well. In a similar vein, I was personally rather pleased to see same-sex relationships (among angels, no less) treated as something normal and unremarkable, but others might find that same treatment offensive. I have to wonder who these books are written for. The apparent young-reader audience is probably not ready for the religious and other themes, while their treatment is too sophomoric for adult readers. I think Pullman would have done well to eschew some of the polemics and concentrate on telling a good story - which he's very capable of doing. I'd like to recommend these books because of their sheer imaginative creativity, but due to these other failings I find it impossible to do so. There are worse books out there, to be sure, but there are just as certainly better ones.
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Summary: A Fantasy Thriler With a LIfe Lesson Twist
Review: When I first started this triology I was blown away with the authors ability to trasfer us to a world so much like ours and yet in some ways entirely different. As the triloy progressed and I learned more about the characters and the twisted lives they live it started to make me think how someone can overcome an obstical with such completeness that she can save the world; or in fact all the worlds. Throughout the books you not only see the plot unfold between your very eyes but you also have the chance to see the two main characters, Lyra and Will, grow up. The way the author presents the theroy of different worlds not only makes you think that we may not be alone but it also leaves you with a sense that we are all connecteted. I recomend this trilogy to anyone who likes fantasy and who isn't afraid of something new, and different.
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Summary: A Book for Fifth Graders?
Review: How could this be a book for fifth graders? I have worked with fifth graders and after reading this book, I would have to say that it is NOT for fifth graders. For instance, the book seems to attack authority and especially religion. It also suggests some homosexuality in the book and that it is fine, like a normal way of life, especailly between the two angels, Balthamos and Baurch. In the Bible, homosexuality is not welcomed and is considered a sin. Besides, would you want your child to be homosexual? Then, it suggests that Will and Lyra are more than friends and had a sexual relationship. But Will and Lyra are just children! Would you like your child to have a sexual relationship with another child? I know if I had a child, I would not. I think overall, that it is ok for a child to read this book as far as the fantasy is concerned, but with the issues I mentioned above, if I had a child, I would not let them read this book and I would find it a disgrace if they did.
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