Reviews of: His Dark Materials Boxed set

by Philip Pullman

His Dark Materials Boxed set Philip Pullman

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This stunning box set contains the three books in the trilogy: The Subtle Knife, Northern Lights and The Amber Spyglass, and is the perfect gift for anyone who is looking for a challenging read. It's recommended for age 10 and above. --Susan Harrison

Reviews


Brilliant - until the last 200 or so pages

I loved this trilogy up until the last 200 pages but it simply did not deliver on its promises - but then I'm not a teenager :-)
2008-12-15

Northern Lights is the best book I've ever read

"Northern Lights" is a fantastic novel by Philip Pullman. It is the first book in a trilogy called "His Dark Materials". This book, is about a girl called Lyra, who lives in a universe like ours, but very different in lots of things. Lyra used to attend Oxford College until she finds out about "dust". When her friend Roger disappears, Lyra sets off to the North to find him with help of her "daemon" and an "alethiometer" given to her by the master of Oxford College. This book is one of those books in which someone cannot stop reading. It is perfectly written, exciting, and sometimes even scary. I not only recommend this book to children, but to every person that just needs something to be excited about.
2008-11-10

wonderful

This trilogy is excellent. Took me a while to get into book one but once the story really got going I couldn't put it down. Lyra grows into a young adult throughout the trilogy and its wonderful to follow her through her trials and tribulations.

Armoured bears, witches, deamons, god, angels, heaven and hell-all and more are wonderfully thoguht up by Pullman and I recommend these to anyone.
2008-09-09

Goes out with a whimper

Northern Lights is brilliant in almost every respect; fast-moving, well-written, imaginative. The Subtle Knife is almost as good, but begins to be diffuse. The Amber Spyglass is, frankly, rubbish. In order to understand what is going on here, you have to have read an obscure essay by a second-rank German author (Heinrich v. Kleist) that Pullman is always going on about. By a logic that defeats me, it concludes that a re-temptation of Eve will undo the disaster that came from the first temptation. Hence Lyra (she's the new Eve, we're told) goes all tingly when she's kissed (only kissed, mind you). This saves the world (don't ask me how). Pullman's cosmogony/theology is even wackier than the Christian version to which he's so hostile. Nor does The Amber Spyglass have a very tight plot -- is the realm of the dead another parallel universe, or what? The Father Gomez episode is totally gratuitous church-baiting, and should have been edited out (along with a few other repetitious bits). It is fairly obvious that Pullman had no idea how to end this trilogy, which accounts for the long delay in publication between parts 2 and 3. But the ending, when it comes, is possibly the most banal I have ever read. One might have thought that having opened the gates of hell, having quite literally witnessed the death of God (and incidentally having saved humankind with a kiss) Lyra and Will deserved some sort of apotheosis. But the ending is like the ending to a children's party: right now kiddies, pack up your things, time to go home.
2008-05-17

Recommended

His Dark Materials is a fantastic series of books. Plenty has already been said in these reviews about the subject matter and writing brilliance. However many people have referred to these as "children's" books, which I slightly disagree with. Young children (8+) will enjoy these if they are read to them - although the subject and language is likely to require further explanation at this age. For sole readers an age of 12+ is more suitable; plus many, many adults (including myself) have enjoyed reading these too.

From my personal experience I didn't enjoy the second book in the series as much as either the first or third as I felt it wasn't as fast-paced and intricate. That said I do not mean that I `didn't enjoy it at all' just that I `preferred' the others.

Other reviews have mentioned that the religious/church bashing may offend, which is perhaps true for deeply/strictly religious folk. However for non-believers I think the books may have the opposite effect, i.e. it may open their minds to the possibility there may be more to life than what we see, in a kind of spiritual sense.

However, a word of warning. After reading this series I purchased Lyra's Oxford which was a big mistake. It adds nothing to this story and took no longer than 15 minutes to read. In fact it left me rather miffed with the author that my feel-good factor from reading the trilogy was then tainted by feeling I'd been ripped off with LO.

In short - the trilogy is a very good buy but give the subsequent books based on this same story a big miss.

2008-04-16

Lyra's Oxford
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Once Upon a Time in the North
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The Rough Guide to Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" (Rough Guides Reference Titles)
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The Ruby in the Smoke (Sally Lockhart)
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The Shadow in the North
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