Rating: 
Summary: This trilogy is awesome
Review: This trilogy is one of the best I've ever read. The author fills these books with great, imaginative characters and places. The books all tie together well. This price is a very good deal. If you like fantasy, I completely recommend His Dark Materials Trilogy.
Rating: 
Summary: As Bad As Christianity (!)
Review: Christianity, Phillip Pullman tells us, is mindless, self-righteous and mean-spirited. Those who read to the end of Pullman's "Dark Materials" trilogy will learn that new-agey liberal moralizing is just as bad. The first book gets the reader's hopes up with a plucky heroine and a quirky alternative universe. Pullman teases us with literary references and the promise of some big philosophical ideas.By the second book, however, the ideas have become predictable. Meanwhile, Pullman abandons his initial setting in favor of half a dozen relatively bland alternate realities. As the book goes on, one must suspend more and more of one's disbelief. Pullman establishes his credentials as a hip free-thinker by sniping at religion and coming out in favor of sex. The third book ends, however, with whole chapters in which protagonists Learn Lessons. A chorus of angels, scientists and other authority figures assist them by giving Good Advice. To make a long story short, this reviewer maintains that most of this advice is not only tiresome, but repressive and poorly-thought out. Readers, of course, may judge for themselves. In this reviewer's opinion, those who want a compelling, intelligent children's fantasy are better off with Lloyd Alexander, Susan Cooper, or, for that matter, J.K. Rowling. Those who like hard core theological weirdness should leave children's books behind and read Neil Gaiman, an author with fewer moral lessons and a stronger moral compass.
Rating: 
Summary: Calling English majors
Review: Like many other people who read these books, I came to them through a Harry Potter-related recommendation. Pullman is technically more proficient than Ms. Rowling, but, as it sometimes goes, the training shows, as do the clear influences of William Blake and Paradise Lost. More than the plot line itself, those three things, the training, Blake, and the Milton, are what I think of when I think of this book. To contrast with the Potter books, these seem much less young adult fiction than an English major's attempt to write proper young adult fiction. The sense of whimsy that made the Potter books such fun is absent here, lost in the almost overweening structure. I'm trying not to pan these books too badly, as I rather enjoyed the series as a whole, but overall they're no more than a placeholder, albeit a quality one.
Rating:
Summary: A truly amazing read
Review: When I was flicking through a book catalogue, like some silly little moth I was immediately attracted to the 'pretty' cover of Northern Lights (Golden Compass for Americans), and so it is fair to say 'judge a book by its cover'. Little did I know I would be entranced by the consistent brilliance of His Dark Materials. Not only are the characters and settings the most exotic ever seen in a book (forget Hogwarts) but it has real meaning, the only book I've ever read to make me laugh, cry, shiver with suspense, and genuinely think. For many days after reading the final chapter YOU will ponder on the meaning of HDM, which seemingly has no definitive 'message'. Easily the greatest book ever written (in my biased opinion. But I have read some other classics- If you really like fine details of HDM you'll love Lord of the Rings).
Rating:
Summary: Great book
Review: This is a great book series. I have read the intire series and am very pleased. These are the best books I have read! I higly recomend these books!
Rating:
Summary: Great but pushy
Review: These books were well written and fascinating, but they push the comfort zones of those with strong spiritual connections. The first one is wonderful, but the second and third delve deeply into atheism and the philosophy of the author. I would highly recommend that you read at least Golden Compass, and beyond if you enjoy an intellectual battle with yourself. (By the way, the four-star rating is an average: GC is 5, SK is 4, and AS is 3).
Rating:
Summary: The Golden Compass
Review: Brent Henderson's Review For The Golden Compass
It was a great book because it was very adventurous and it made sense, although the ending was kind of sad. It was long, but not too long. I read the whole "His Dark Materials" series, but this is my favorite. I couldn't put it down!
Rating:
Summary: Great books!
Review: I have read a lot of Phillip Pullman's books, but this series is by far the best. My favorite book in the series was the first one, the Golden Compass, but I was not disapointed at all by the rest of the books. Some people think the series critisizes the Catholic church. You're not supposed to take it that seriously-that's why they're called fantasy books. This series is extremely good, and I reccomend it to everyone except those who absolutely hate fantasy or science fiction books (although I cannot imagine someone like that).
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read, But....
Review: Anyone who enjoys well-written fantasy will be pulled into these books by the dazzling invention and tight plotting. You'll stay up late turning pages to find out what happens next. But the first protaganist is unlikable, the characterization in general is weak, and in the third book it dawned on me why: Pullman is more concerned with his polemic against what he perceives the beliefs of the Christian church to be, than with his characters or his story. The two male "angels" who are desperately in love with each other are such a self-conscious anti-stereotype that I realized the author was more concerned with scoring points against his understanding of Christian belief than with story-telling. That's fine--I'm a committed Christian, yet I don't mind being asked to think. But it's the difference between this trilogy and The Lord of the Rings (grand in a way this cannot be), or the Harry Potter books (less inventive but more charming), which are vastly different from each other, and from His Dark Materials. Story comes first in those books, despite obvious parallels to the "real" world. Pullman has written an allegory, which Tolkien and Rowling did not. It's still a great read--don't worry about the fact that you don't care about the characters, and enjoy Pullman's imagination. Not for children, though! It has moments of real horror.
Rating:
Summary: A Great Read, But....
Review: Anyone who enjoys well written fantasy will be pulled into these books by the dazzling invention and tight plotting. You'll stay up late turning pages to find out what happens next. But the first protaganist is unlikable, the characterization in general is weak, and in the third book it dawned on me why: Pullman is more concerned with his polemic against what he perceives the beliefs of the Christian church to be, than with his characters or his story. The two male "angels" who are desperately in love with each other are such a self-conscious anti-stereotype that I realized the author was more concerned with scoring points against his understanding of Christian belief than with story-telling. That's fine--I'm a committed Christian, yet I don't mind being asked to think. But it's the difference between this trilogy and The Lord of the Rings (grand in a way this cannot be), or the Harry Potter books (less inventive but more charming), which are vastly different from each other, and from His Dark Materials. Story comes first in those books, despite obvious parallels to the "real" world. Pullman has written an allegory, which Tolkien and Rowling did not. It's still a great read--don't worry about the fact that you don't care about the characters, and enjoy Pullman's imagination. Not for children, though! It has moments of real horror.
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