Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #73552 in Books
• Published on: 2001-10-19
• Format: Box set
• Binding: Paperback
• 224 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy astounded the literary world, reaping high praise from adults as well as children. The final book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass, was published to great literary acclaim, earning Pullman a place on the longlist for the prestigious Booker Prize and pushing the trilogy toward cult fiction status for both children and adults.

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

Synopsis
A gift set of all three books in the acclaimed "Dark Materials" trilogy in one slipcase.

Customer Reviews

Read all three and remember nothing!
These books are so forgetable. Regardless of all the deep theological ideas etc, I read all three in a row and was left wanting. What was the fuss about? There was so very much that could have been cut out, so much that was forgetable and pointless. The whole thing just felt like a huge rant. I'm not religious, but I found it dull and pointless, like his personal crusade against Christianity.

Enjoyable fantasy
No point in reviewing the individual books because they don't make sense alone - they are three episodes of a single story. Read "Northern Lights" (or, as I did first, see the approximately corresponding film "The Golden Compass") alone, and one is confronted with an odd children's adventure yarn, admittedly rather darker and more sinister in the book than in the watered-down film. However, one (this one anyway) was still tempted to paraphrase Randy Newman:

O, who would think a girl and bear
Could be well accepted everywhere?
It's just amazing how fair
People can be!

"Northern Lights" is actually a bit of a bore, and one is tempted to scream "GET ON WITH IT!" every few pages. However, it is an essential set-up for what follows. "The Subtle Knife" is a marvellous bit of compulsive page-turning writing as three parallel worlds come into collision and the anti-religious overtones of the trilogy, at which "Northern Lights" only vaguely hints, come more sharply into focus. The character of Will, the boy from our world, with destiny thrust upon him, is especially appealing.

"The Amber Spyglass", fattest of the three, starts off slowly, but stick with it, because it becomes ever more interesting and fascinating. One (this one anyway) is lost in admiration of Mr. Pullman's prodigious imagination in weaving together all the various and varied elements of this amazing tale. In some cases, the imagination is, to me, just too prodigious, with the creation of wheeled creatures, appealing though they are. However, you will enjoy the ride. The bittersweet ending is especially effective.

And the anti-religious message that seems to have upset some people? "The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all," states one of Mr. Pullman's heroines. And devout Christians will undoubtedly bridle at his picture of "The Authority" and indeed his whole take on theology, on which he has partially based his fantasy, with many Biblical ideas (the Garden of Eden) and figures (Enoch) playing a part. However, as I understand it, this God bears little or no resemblance to the God of the Bible, whom Christians worship, and if He does, they should be very worried indeed. And, hey, Christianity has been around for 2000 years now. It should be grown up and able to stand up for itself - and be both ready and able to take a bit of honest examination. Has the faith for which many were prepared to perish in the arenas of Rome with such courage come to the point where a kids' book is a threat? If it has, it's not much of a faith. As for its potential for subverting children, it seems to me to be about as subversive as Harry Potter - and does it not represent a golden opportunity for Christian parents to expound the difference?

Unputdownable adventure
Northern Lights is endlessly inventive from the interesting parallel fictional Oxford at the beginning to the Parallel World revealed at the end of the book. The idea of every person being attached to a 'daemon' is truly inspired and creates much of the charm and ingenuity that makes His Dark Materials so well-loved. Overall, a children's adventure story with grown-up overriding themes concerning the questioning of authority - a marvellous read from start to finish.