Synopsis:
In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers" —and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

Honestly, this book was a complete joy to read. Though this book is undoubtedly aimed at a young adult market, anybody of any age will be indulged by a tale of lost innocence and suspenseful terror. Right from the get go the novel's main protagonist had me under her spell. An alternate reality, Victorian-esque landscape with all the trappings and wonders of an age so similar, yet so very different, to our own past was created with a deft aplomb. The pace of the novel is frantic, the characters are all very believable, the slightly strange steam powered and mechanical instruments were both lovingly infused with a slightly askew and magical nuance which beautifully reflected the people and place of Lyra's world. I gobbled up this book's pages quite greedily and as soon as I had finished reading the last page started on the following book within a few hours. This is the type of storytelling that made me wish I was once again a teenage boy filled with a sense of wonder at the world. If I ever have a child I will joyously give them a copy of this book to read. Need I say more?






Synopsis:
The second book in the "Dark Materials" trilogy. Will is 12 years old and he's just killed a man. Determined to discover the truth about his father's disappearance, he steps through a window into another world. There, he meets a girl called Lyra who, like himself, is on a mission.

The second instalment of His Dark Materials trilogy takes a more unusual turn. The tempo of this novel is slower, more deliberate, and introduces a slew of new characters. Will is a young boy forced to fend for himself and his mentally unbalanced mother in our world. By sheer chance he ends up going through a portal into another world and through surreal circumstances meets up with Lyra in a world decimated by a plague of ghostly apparitions which rob adults of their life; only children live and run free with reckless abandon in this new and eerily silent world. Recounting how both of these children will come to trust one another and the reasons for their being together is convoluted but it doesn't detract from the narrative. This is a fine follow up to the The Golden Compass but it does have two minor flaws. The first is that no matter when or where Will and Lyra end up being they are surrounded by people who want or need something desperately from them. Everybody is either a friend or foe, I found it grated on my appreciation for what Pullman was trying to achieve with his characters. Secondly, I am someone who when he reads fantasy or science fiction, eschews stories where a magical trinket or weapon of mass destruction or talisman of unbelievable power or whatever gives its wearer or yielder an almost unbelievable edge in do-or-die situations. In this case such a weapon is the knife which Will will come to use whenever the need arises. It makes the passage from chapter to chapter, location in one world to another, all too easily apparent. a certain sense of wonder and mystery goes out the window when such items are brought into modern fantasy. Compare it to the alethiometer that Lyra uses; The Subtle Knife is a scalpel which cuts through anything, the alethiometer is more of a divining rod. I felt Pullman, although he creates some wonderful worlds, and worlds within worlds copped out with this creation. Overall, this is a worthwhile read punctuated with some obvious, and not so obvious plot twists.






Synopsis:
Along with the return of Lyra, Will, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel, Dr. Mary Malone, and Iorek Byrnison the armored bear, come a host of new characters: the Mulefa, mysterious wheeled creatures with the power to see Dust; Gallivespian Lord Roke, a hand-high spymaster to Lord Asriel; and Metatron, a fierce and mighty angel. So, too, come startling revelations: the painful price Lyra must pay to walk through the land of the dead, the haunting power of Dr. Malone's amber spyglass, and the names of who will live--and who will die--for love. And all the while, war rages with the Kingdom of Heaven, a brutal battle that--in its shocking outcome--will uncover the secret of Dust. Philip Pullman deftly brings the cliff-hangers and mysteries of His Dark Materials to an earth shattering conclusion--and confirms his fantasy trilogy as an undoubted and enduring classic.

I have to admit the final book in this trilogy is something of a love hate affair. The mysterious reasons for so much of what has gone before in the two previous books is revealed; and it is worth waiting for. There is no doubt about one thing with Pullman - he has a contempt for the Catholic church and its ministrations. He does offer up an atheistic outlook with his recounting of how all forms of a large religion seek to stem, stymie, obfuscate and in the end look to stop the advancement of human ingenuity through its self righteous belief. It has been branded candy coated atheism, but I say "So what?" His writing is honest, his delivery is crisp and well meaning. The didactic discourse he shades certain chapters with is well thought out, well intentioned, and not a scathing polemic against morality - in fact it is the opposite. I felt that he ran out of ideas with this novel. There are certain occurrences in this novel, in fact there are certain chapters, where the course of tumultuous events is given a downright unbelievable slant. I will not reveal them, but they felt tired and left me with a strong impression that the author was walking a tightrope with his handling of Will and Lyra's adventure into the greatest of all unknowns. This novel reintroduces some friends; once lost, something I felt just honeydripped with an irony that was unnecessary. I felt that at one point Pullman actually had God, or the being who misrepresented himself as being God, as an old man who ends up succumbing to old age and dying before Will and Lyra. This novel is punctuated with many surreal episodes, the above being one of the shorter events. Though not a smooth read, in fact the middle of the book seem to be a mixture of escalating events lacking cohesion with a lacklustre polish, the final one hundred fifty pages saved it from being a so so read. The manipulative ending, designed to tug at the heart strings, was delivered with such a polite and tender savageness that it will undoubtedly have left many a reader teary eyed. Memorable, magnificent (at times) and well worth your time and money. There are not many better.

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