In concluding the spellbinding His Dark Materials trilogy, Pullman produces what may well be the most controversial children's book of recent years. The witch Serafina Pekkala, quoting an angel, sums up the central theme: "All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. The rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority and his churches have always tried to keep them closed." Early on, this "Authority" is explicitly identified as the Judeo-Christian God, and he is far from omnipotent: his Kingdom is ruled by a regent. The cosmic battle to overthrow the Kingdom is only one of the many epic sequences in this novelAso much happens, and the action is split among so many different imagined worlds, that readers will have to work hard to keep up with Pullman. In the opening, for example, Lyra is being hidden and kept in a drugged sleep in a Himalayan cave by her mother, the beautiful and treacherous Mrs. Coulter. Will is guided by two angels across different worlds to find Lyra. The physicist and former nun, Mary Malone, sojourns in an alternatively evolved world. In yet another universe, Lord Asriel has assembled a great horde of otherworldly beings-including the vividly imagined race of haughty, hand-high warriors called GallivespiansAto bring down the Kingdom. Along the way, Pullman riffs on the elemental chords of classical myth and fairy tale. While some sections seem rushed and the prose is not always as brightly polished as fans might expect, Pullman's exuberant work stays rigorously true to its own internal structure. Stirring and highly provocative. Ages 12-up.
I agree with what he said. . . or something like that. This final book is sacreligious to the core, but again taken as fantasy it is not offensive to me. After all, this clearly is not the God I know, nor the after life I will be attending. The story was good. The characters endearing. I don't really know what else to say. I liked it, but if you feel your faith is shakey perhaps it's not for you. . . or perhaps it is if you don't want to believe in a loving God. *shrug*. I would suggest maybe 15 and up on the age group however. Not so much for religious reasons, but for sex and violence as well. Actually any younger and they likely would not understand the whole renactment of Adam and Eve anyhow. Thought provoking. I enjoyed the series.
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