Rating: 
Summary: Great Series, but I would have changed the ending.
Review: I recieved these books for Christmas and I read them all in less than a week...The first two books were great and the Third was even better except for the last few chapters. This series tells a tale of morality, and builds a world unlike and like anything you have seen before...Overall the series was great.
Rating: 
Summary: How I Introduced My Kids to Organized Relgion
Review: This beautifully written trilogy is a fantastic telling of how a young girl and boy come of age in a realm full of mystery, magic and danger. Pullman intelligently borrows from history and quantum physics to portray a universe which is inherently conscious, intelligent and benevolent. At the same time, he exposes organized religion as a repressive force which distorts the true nature of God and places limits on human spiritual development. In so doing, he introduces us to the folly of core Judeo/Christian religious beliefs that include the notion that man is basically evil and in need of salvation. Pullman returns the kingdom of God to it's rightful heirs -- the children -- who are born innocent, corrupted only by the distorted beliefs of self-righteous adults. For me, this was not only a beautifully written, fantastic tale full of interesting plot twists and courageous protagonists, it was an excellent introduction to destructive religious thinking. For those of us who's desire it is to raise children who trust their own divine nature and believe in their own innate goodness, His Dark Materials is a wonderful expose of organized religion's most corrupt and virulent beliefs. By far better than two weeks of summer bible school!
Rating:
Summary: Dark. Wonderfully Dark.
Review: Some of the reviews I have seen have made comparisons to Harry Portter. Do not be fooled. These are VERY different books. I bought them expecting the same warm and fuzzy feeling that the Harry books left me with but warm and fuzzy is not what Pullman writes about. These books have a dark intensity that Harry does not and are clearly for an older more sophisticated audience. Please don't buy these for an eight year old. Buy them for your 28 year old. Death, gore, fear and pain are all treated as part of life in a way that most children won't understand and a parent might not want to explain. There is also love, loyalty, sacrifice and compassion in equal measure to the darkness. The books explore the idea of soul, of religion, of god. Very, very adult. I read all three in a week and found them immensely gripping and moving. I recommend them to anyone over 12.
Rating:
Summary: The Golden Compass
Review: The Golden Compass is a book that you would really like, if you love adventure. The main character is Lyra who tries to save her friend Roger from the gobblers. The book is a little sad at the end, but very good overall. At the end,Lyra's father opens up a gateway between worlds which leads you to the next book.
Rating:
Summary: A Magnificent Read
Review: THE BEST BOOK EVER!
A magical atmosphere, a whirlwind adventure, and a heart-wrenching, evocative conclusion to a wonderful series.
Strong characterisation, vivid description and imaginative entities make this series, this journey, definitely a favourite read of mine.
The only thing that could slightly blemish this series' impact would be the emphasis on anti-Christianity. Yet, this series is only fictitious. The anti-Christian approach is only disturbing because Pullman's talent and effort has made the books seem ultimately real. An EXCELLENT READ! I'm twelve years old, and I would say that most people from my age up would be able to read this book and gain maximum satisfaction. However, keep in mind that although being magical like Harry Potter, just as vivid in character and setting, this series is decidedly darker, with more depth in concepts and emotions.
Rating:
Summary: IF YOU LIKED HARRY POTTER, YOU'LL LOVE THIS!!! 10 STARS!!!!!
Review: These books are the best books I have ever read in my entire life. If you are a spiritual person, you'll especially love these books. It's not only for kids, although I do highly reccamend it for 12-16 year old boys and girls. It's a fantasy trilogy about a girl named Lyra Silvertongue and a boy named Will Parry. They each are on are there own inspiring quest full of adventure as they travel between many different worlds. Each book represents one of the awesomly powerful items that Will and Lyra get: The Golden Compass (Alethiometer), The Subtle Knife (Aesahaetr), and the Amber Spyglass (no name). VERY INTELLIGENTLY/CUNNINGLY WRITTEN. It has amazing detail, the best I've seen. I've read many books and these are probably the best I've ever read. Just make sure you read them in order, or else you will lose the complicated plot. I do not recomend His Dark Materials to young readers because of violence and completed reading.
Rating:
Summary: Moral Tales
Review: I read the first two parts of the trilogy tonight, rather than finishing up some much needed work. I found them entrancing. I take issue with those who've criticized the religious content of the books or said that they're only fantasy: Mr. Pullman is an Oxford trained literature professor and he's pulling a great deal of this out of Milton. Which I think is wonderful. Children's literature shouldn't pose moral issues any less clearly than adults. Indeed, the world portrayed by these books is much more morally relevant than so-called guides to moral rectitude, such as the unspeakably horrible "Prayer of Jabez." But there is more to it than that: they are a window into an entire branch of literature that Americans almost never delve into. Comparisons to the Lord of the Rings are apt, but not because of the moral sweep or epic tone. They are apt because this is the creation of a careful and cultivated mind steeped in the best of our western literary and philosophical traditions. I'd also add that these books are only anti-Christian if you hold a very narrow view of Christianity that has more to do with social hegemony of fundamentalist churches in small communities than it has to do with any real engagement in either the historic or textual framework in which Christianity is contained. The thoughts they express are not heretical but strike to the quick of the essential contradictions of the continuing adventure that is Western literature. (I hesitate to say world literature, or post modern literature or any of the like because I think anything told as a novel, with chapters, is pretty well western literature by this point, The Tale of Genji aside.)
Rating:
Summary: first-rate, imaginative fiction
Review: I'd forgotten that books can be this exhilarating and enjoyable. Philip Pullman has done some wonderfully imaginative things with the worlds he creates in the His Dark Materials trilogy. Particularly cool are the armored bears, great intelligent polar bears who craft semi-magical armor for themselves and live in a roughly ordered society. His conception of daemons as magical creatures that each and every human possesses, that are able to shapeshift until their human partner reaches puberty, is also a stroke of genius. There were other elements of the books that impressed me deeply, but I won't go into them for fear of ruining a pleasant surprise for anyone who decides to read them. It's been a long time since a book kept me up reading until 4 AM, but these three books all gripped my imagination with such intensity that I plowed through them as quickly as I could. These books were first recommended to me as being on par with the Harry Potter series, but I've found Pullman's work here to be far superior to Rowling's. It's more richly detailed, more imaginative, more deeply thought-out, is stocked with more interesting and well-realized characters, and is more compelling and entertaining at all turns. Clearly Pullman was writing for a more mature audience than Rowling, but he still stands head and shoulders higher as a writer and world-maker. If there were any justice in the world, Philip Pullman would also be an insufferably famous multimedia star.
Rating: 
Summary: ShoeshineBoy
Review: I thought this series was wonderful...until I got to the end and was so thoroughly disappointed I would not recommend it to anyone. What a waste of time. The first book was awesome. The second book was even better. The third was a chore getting through. The whole series was so original and inventive it was a great disappointment that he ended it on such a sappy love story. I didn't care at all in the end.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent - Unbelievably so
Review: I received The Golden Compass as Christmas present probably 4 years ago (ironic, these books as a Christmas present) and never touched it. Finally I picked it up and read. I was hooked and went out and bought The Subtle Knife only days later, proceeded to devour it, and luckily, The Amber Spyglass has just been released. Wow, these are probably my favorite 3 books ever. And that's saying something, because I've read a LOT of books. The are very obviously Anti-Christian, but never the less, I found the matters discussed very fascinating. Actually, it reminded me a lot of the movie Dogma, believe it or not, thought Dogma was decidely pro-Christian. Anyways, go read these books, they are the best.
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