Review: His Dark Materials Trilogy by Philip Pullman

I finally finished reading this book, and it's one of those that I was cursing my reading limitations. I couldn't explain how much I couldn't wait for this trilogy to end--in a completely good way. The novels trace the adventures of Lyra and Will, two very special children for reasons you need to read to find out, as they work within their universe of multiple worlds to fulfill their destinies.

I absolutely fell in love with Lyra and all of the other characters (at least the ones you're supposed to fall in love with) and was rooting for them the whole way, hoping that they'd make the right decisions to help their world to reverse the various troubles caused by various government and religious authorities. That being said, as was highly publicized when the movie came out, these novels are really critical of organized religion (particularly the Catholic Church as you'll see if/when you read the trilogy) and seems to support science and personal accountability more than religious tenets, and, I'll admit, Pullman does sometimes beat you over the head with it. Still, I personally think it's possible to really enjoy this book even if you don't agree with Pullman's religious and political tenets. I also think Pullman did a really fantastic job only allowing the reader to know certain things about characters until it's really the right time for the reader to know it. Sometimes, he foreshadows and tells the story from multiple perspectives (so the reader knows a bit more than the characters about how other worlds/characters are behaving) but allows the reader to question his/her own understanding of the characters and what their role is in the story, whether good or bad.

Although His Dark Materials was technically listed as "Young Adult" at Borders, I really think that other audiences would really enjoy the trilogy. The plot moves quickly, reminding me slightly of Harry Potter (however, unlike Harry [with maybe the exception of Book 6], each individual novel in the trilogy do not stand alone and do not have their own, nicely-tied-together endings [translation: do not expect to be able to read one novel without reading them all at once]) and sucked me into the story right away. I also loved the opportunity to be able to experience "another world" much like mine but completely different in many ways. The novels also provide the ability to really consider whether the basic philosophy contained in this "fantasy" novel could actually be not so "fantastic." I really don't think I'm doing these novels justice, so please please please look at some of these other reviews to find out just how much you should read this book. :)

My rating: 9.9/10

Other reviews:
Bending Bookshelf (here and here)
Book Addiction
Hey Lady! Whatcha Readin'?
Just One More Page
Books for Breakfast Drinks for Dinner
*If I missed your review (or mis-linked it), please let me know and I'll add/fix it!