Customer Reviews
Pullman package 
2008-07-13
Volume 2 of this handsome trilogy package from Knopf came with many of
the later pages improperly bound, with portions of each sentence cut off
in the gutter. Someone in Knopf quality control wasn't paying attention.
I bought the Pullman trilogy for my wife as a gift, and it came shrink-
sealed, so the problem originated with the publisher, not Amazon.
Not an antitheistic book at all, but one that opens the mind to all the glorious wonders of our universe 
2008-07-05
I've read a number of one-star reviews that compel me to write a review myself. What I think is disturbing is the lack of recognition of the spirituality in Phillip Pullman's writing that reviewers seem to have. This book is not a testament of atheism. On the contrary. There is a VAST difference between spirituality and religiosity. I think Pullman attempts to make these differences more stark in his story-telling.
That does not make one an atheist.
Like the characters in the book we are invited to look beyond our own limited vision of our world and our concepts of what we believe God to embody. Pullman is not out to destroy God, rather he is out to destroy the reification of spirituality. Those that criticize this series on this basis are missing the point entirely. I suggest you go back and re-read with an OPEN mind.
For those who have not read it, it's an enjoyable series that at times can drag a little bit in plot and have seemingly point-less diversions. The arc of the story is not limited to one book but rather all three. See it through and you will understand. Read with an open-mind...because when it comes down to it there is no other way to be.
Very Excellent Work... 2008-07-02
I greatly enjoyed this trilogy, and would definitely recommend it to other readers. It does have some complicated themes however, so I would probably lean towards 14 and up for the readers age.
One note, the second book had two pages that were narrower then the rest, and error that obviously occurred in manufacturing, fortunately, the text on the pages is complete. Otherwise a very nice package.
Beautiful boxed set, but terrible trilogy 
2008-06-29
His Dark Materials Trilogy boxed set by Philip Pullman
If you are already a fan of this trilogy, then this is a wonderful set. Each hardcover is sturdy with thick pages. We noticed very few editing errors. And the box fits the hardcovers perfectly, unlike some other sets where the books barely fit in the box.
However, if you are not already a fan of the series, I would highly suggest that you read the books from the library BEFORE purchasing this set. We read The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife and loved them both. In The Golden Compass, you meet young Lyra and her daemon Pan. She has the moral compass of a much older and wiser soul and it's easy to follow her escapades. In The Subtle Knife, Lyra meets Will, who is from our world. The two of them travel through many worlds and meet many peoples--ghosts, witches, gypsies, dragonfly-riding gnomes, and specters (who kill adults). By the third book, you're hooked on their quest to find out the origin of "dust" and to free all of the dead's souls. (Yeah, pretty deep for a kids' book.) But when you read the last book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, Pullman is unable to pull off his grandiose tale's ending. Imagine the Harry Potter series ending after book 5 and you've got, tada, The Amber Spyglass. It ruined the first two books and we even re-read the last chapter again and again because we couldn't believe Pullman just left us hanging. There is no sequel and he leaves a lot of depressing loose ends. The entire last book was like a mishmash of ideas brought in and never completed. Then he rushed to tie up loose ends, killing off four main characters in one chapter alone.
So, I would highly recommend this set if you're already a fan. Otherwise, don't waste your time on this trilogy. The ending is a non-ending and incredibly disappointing.
Mixed thoughts 
2008-06-29
I read this series solely because of all the anti-religious hype created by Christians surrounding the movie "The Golden Compass." I'm a Christian myself and believe that Christians are a fickle bunch of people who get excited about the littlest of things, so I thought I'd read this series for myself and decide if it was truly anti-religious or not.
The conclusion I came to was: yes and no. The first two books barely touch religion at all. Sure, we mention the church and some of the weird and evil things the church is dabbling in. But the church scenes are few and far in between. The Golden Compass is more the story of Lyra traveling all over creation with a ton of different characters. Some people praise the first book as being very exciting and whatnot, but I find it absurd in many cases all the things Lyra does. I frankly don't care about her adventure or what she is doing at all. And the first three or four chapters of the book--entirely boring. Some people write that they were hooked within the first few pages--I don't see how that's possible. The first chapter was the worst chapter of the entire series. I would've put the book down right then and there but I kept reading, hoping to find what all the controversy was about.
And I couldn't find much controversial in the first two books. Many people write that these books aren't for children. Perhaps you could argue that the violence is too much, or some of the weirder parts are too much (like the group of people that drill holes in their skulls. What's that all about?). But from a religious standpoint, there's nothing in these first two books that's going to derail a child's faith and make him or her into an atheist.
The thing that bothered me the most about the first book (and all the books really) was the concept of daemons. What's the point of them? They serve no purpose at all! Pan rarely talks to Lyra, and when he does, he has nothing interesting to say. Why? Because he is Lyra! He's just an outward extention of her. Daemons rarely contribute anything in the fight scenes, they rarely do anything practical. They are simply there for cute purposes. In The Golden Compass, the kids think it's SO HORRIBLE that daemons are separated from their partners, but as a reader, I could care less. And that's bad that I don't care about daemons, because the Golden Compass is largely focused on them.
And a note to Pullman: how many times to we need to read that Pan "hung close to Lyra's breast" or "clutched Lyra's breast," or in any other way attaches himself to her breast. She's a 12 year old for crying out loud. All this talk of her breasts and animals attaching to them makes me think Pullman is slightly attracted to the female character he's created.
The second book wasn't much better than the first. Other reviewers point out Will's stoic nature and the cliched plot of sick mother, father gone left him. I must admit, though, that the subtle knife and the altheithometer are two very cool fantasy items. The amber spyglass, however, was introduced way too late in the third book and isn't that impressive at all. I could've done without it.
The third book is where everybody has problems with, in a literary and religious sense. First literary. The book has too much going on at once. The angels. The intention craft. Mary's spill into another world with wheeled creatures. None of this is needed. Metatron? As somebody else said, Metatron feels more appropriate in a Japanese mecha anime.
The most exciting part of the book was the land of the dead scene, which I felt was a satisfying explanation of death, but the scene was way too long. I was waiting for the church stuff to explode wide open, but it never did. Throughout the whole series we are told how bad the church is, but we never really see them taken on and attacked. Instead Pullman's church does not in any way reflect the real church of today, so it's hard to take any of his criticisms seriously.
And then we get to the confrontation with the Authority. Completely anticlimatic. And it comes roughly 2/3 through the book? This is the first book I've ever read where somebody kills God, and the scene with God was only a few pages and not what I was expecting.
And what happens after God dies? The story drags on and brings up unnecessary details. Daemons being separated. Will getting a daemon. Another convoluted explanation of Dust. And windows needing to be closed up. It goes on and on past the point of caring for this reader.
In the end: I'm glad to have read the series, I won't sell it but I probably won't read it again. The criticism of Christianity didn't bother me because the Christianity of Pullman in no way correlates with the real Christianity of our world. If the church really was like the church in the book, then I too would become an atheist. But it's not. Parents have nothing to fear from this book. I suspect most kids will have a hard time really following the criticism of religion. In all, a substandard fantasy work that will only be remembered for being the first major fantasy work by an atheist targeted at children. I think people who praise this series are more in love with the IDEA of an atheist fantasy story than they are with the actual execution of the story.
A fantastic Trilogy 2008-07-21
I first was introduced to this trilogy by a friend that had the audiobooks. It was a fantastic story that kept me on the edge of my seat. The characters are full of life and the story is jam packed full of excitement. If you want a story that will take you to other worlds and draw you into them, check this one out!
An Amazing Accomplishment 2008-07-20
I just finished this trilogy. Amazing accomplishment by Philip Pullman. To describe these as children's books does not to them justice, as they are written at a very sophisticated level. His prose is delectable, the story moves at a fast and never lagging pace. Yes there are children as protagonists, but I am an adult with no children and read these eagerly for myself alone. HIs scope is staggering and the overall story inventive and original. I've read the Harry Potter series and this trilogy is FAR SUPERIOR in my opinion, mainly because the writing is so much better and more complicated (though not to detract from JK Rowling). I really had no idea where the story would end so my attention was held to the last page. This series of books is really of the highest order of fiction and deserves a place among the great adventure fiction that has been written to date.
Promising start and interesting themes - awful ending and poor story telling 2008-07-20
**Spoiler Alert: Do not read this review, if you haven't read the books yet and plan to do so.**
The trilogy starts promisingly, and I was quite happy with the first book. It reads like an allegory of our own world. I am an atheist/agnostic and have very little sympathy for the catholic church, so I found some of these themes quite appealing and interesting. But as the story progresses in the second book the characters start getting more shallow, and less interesting and the story starts getting illogical twists that just seem to make no sense in the context of the story line, the plot seems to follow the whims of the writer and not it's own inner logic that the first book promisingly build up. The third book continues this trend. Nothing makes sense anymore. And don't understand this wrongly. A fantasy story doesn't have to "make sense", but it has to follow it's own set of rules or the storyline is shattered. When the rules are broken the reader starts feeling he's being manipulated. While the world of the first book was full of life, promise, hope, wonder and achievement when the world was on the brink of a great war and children were being kidnapped, the ending of the third book is the emotional opposite - after the universe has been saved.
The way Pullman forces apart the two kids who saved the universe is more arbitrary and manipulative than the catholic church, makes less logical sense than Leviticus, and is cruel as the inquisition. The two kids have killed and have seen death, they have lost all their loved ones, they have lost their friends, they are alone in the world except for each other and they have just fallen in love to give them hope. And at just that moment Pullman pulls them apart for the arbitrary reason that a single specter (a bit annoying creature, but something the angels and ghosts and the knife can combat) could enter the world every ten years if a window between the worlds was kept open. Compared to the wonders, achievement and joy the inter-action and collaboration of the different worlds could achieve that is a very very small price. And not just these two kids but the larger context in which the good forces of different worlds could combine their powers. There is nothing free thought, no wonder, no compassion about the way Pullman concludes the trilogy. The values the ending reflects are the very same values, anti-imagination anti-freedom, Pullman set himself to challenge. The third book is just horrible. One of the worst endings I have ever read.
Not recommended reading for children. I don't mind the anti-catholicism angle, but the way the reader is manipulated and how imagination and wonder are cruelly restricted is not a message of freedom. Completely puzzled how the second and third book have generally got good reviews.
His Dark Materials Trilogy 2008-07-18
I am agnostic and not a religious person. However, these three novels are anti-christian and anti-catholic in particular. They substitute another religion in place of Christianity. They deal with organized religion as an absolute evil.
The stories are not nearly as well written as the Harry Potter novels. The universes they portray are dark ones. The title of the trilogy: "His Dark Materials" is a fitting one.
OK plot, poorly written 
2008-07-18
First, I went into it with the understanding that it was an atheistic book. And maybe the metaphor he uses simply isn't (to me) accurate and he does mean the antagonists to represent organized religion, not God Himself, but to me, the metaphor seems almost pro-Satan. Again, it may be that I'm being a bit too technical when looking at the metaphor. But when you take character A and equate it to God, then character B does NOT, to me, represent atheism or free thinking, but Satan himself. Or maybe you're supposed to take it a step further, and believe Satan *is* Man and there are no forces of Good and Evil, but rather, Human and a tyrannical higher being. But I was surprised by how the tone of the book (seems to) denounce the actual Person of God, not organized religion. I also found the POV a bit one-sided. Apparently, if you are a God follower, you must be stupid or evil, end of story.
Second, I found his writing style so bad, I'm surprised it made it past the first editing, much less the final. He writes in the third person, but he jumps perspectives within the same page, sometimes within the same paragraph. You don't follow the characters' thoughts very well, because he's constantly jumping from one to another. Additionally, he tries the metaphor technique, but he obviously thinks his audience is too stupid, so he barrels through with an explanation. Seriously...if you're going to use a metaphor for a story, stick with it. Don't SUDDENLY explain EXACTLY in REAL LIFE what is happening because to do so, you must leave the story. In this way, he reminds me of Ayn Rand, who will spend 4 pages on a monologue about real ideas in an otherwise symbolic storyline, but at least her writing style was superb; his is not. Also, everyone -- from the main children character to people who seem to represent the Vatican -- speak in what I assume is supposed to be a low class English (except for the "Texan", whose verbage seems to be based on John Wayne movies). Another thing he does that annoys me is, he fills in parts of the plot by having the characters simply tell a story about how something happened,; the audience does not experience the events as part of the story, but is simply told via the character telling someone else. He also uses the word "desperately" a lot even when it really didn't make sense ("she was desperately hungry", "He seemed desperately naive", "Ann desperately wanted to just finish the series").
Third, some of the ideas are so complex, it's obviously geared towards adults or older audiences. But he tries (to me) to really emulate CS Lewis' simple style (I think he wrote the trilogy in response to the Narnian Chronicles), who writes the NC for children. It just doesn't work. It might have if he had stayed within the story but he REALLY REALLY REALLY wants to MAKE SURE you know what he's trying to say. He is not a subtle writer, in which case he shouldn't try to use a subtle technique.
Fourth, the entire series is plot-driven. I have always been of the thought that any good book/show/movie is character-driven, and you may disagree. But he makes his characters act how they need to act to move the plot along, even if you might think it's very out of character. I didn't feel any of the characters, not even the main characters, or the different worlds, had any depth. He tells you WHAT the characters think/do but not why.
Those are my gripes. Overall, if he had simply stuck with the story, then this would have been a very good children's series, written for juvenile audiences. But he wants to make sure you know he has higher ideas behind it. I think the Narnian Chronicles (and maybe the Lord of the Rings...there is some debate if Tolkien also meant his series to be religious) work because you are never 100% certain Lewis MEANT it to be religious. In fact, reading it as a kid, I didn't realize there was any Christian connotation. But Pullman pulls too many direct parallels to the Bible and the Catholic Church, he leaves no doubt where he is trying to head. One parallel at the end made me LOL; it was so absurd...just ONE MORE NAIL...DO YOU GET IT? SEE WHAT I'M TRYING TO TELL YOU? I HAVE TO TELL YOU THIS ONE TOO, JUST IN CASE THE MILLION OTHER UNSUBTLE HINTS I GAVE LEFT YOU ANY DOUBT. I tried to just read it as an enjoyable fiction but he keeps slamming you with these comparisons so it becomes a chore to read.
Oh one more gripe -- he obviously only has a problem with Western religion, not organized in general. Apparently the Taoists and Buddhists had it right, though.
