The His Dark Materials Trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass) is one of the most well-crafted, engaging, and thought-provoking fantasy novels I have read in a very long time. It was a mistake as a child when, after reading the first two, did not read the last one; though at the time, I thought had left off for good reason. In the first book, in a parallel universe is a world that is afraid of a mysterious substance called Dust. The church authorities in this world (called “experimental “theologians”—isn’t that cool?) think that this Dust is related to original sin and want to destroy it. The first two books explain that the Church works for the Authority, or God, who is oppressive and manipulative, and is revealed in the second book to be a really old angel—the first angel who formed out of Dust and tried to convince all the subsequent beings that he created them. At the time I was very uncomfortable with where this was going, and so did not read the last book. Until now. Fast forward to now—not that I’m theologically ok with accusing God of the greatest conspiracy of all Time, but now I am more able to appreciate the brilliance of Phillip Pullman. I just want to touch on a few points where this brilliance literally shine through. The image of “The Fall” was just great—there was a prophesy where Lyra was the next Eve or something and she was going to be temped, another character was told to “play the serpent,” there were a (red) fruit involved—and everything depended on what happened in this garden-like area. The main characters fell in love…..at the end!!! I knew that it was coming, but it came on so gradually, and it was not the main focus until the very end. Well done, though really terrible at the end when they had to be separated, living in two different worlds. Daemons—in Lyra’s world, part of your soul live outside of your body in the form of an animal. I think this is such a neat concept, especially when one character mentions that St. Paul once said something about the body/spirit/soul trichotomy, if you will. In this book it is also interesting the way the Authority dies—he is so old he is encased in crystal casket and when Lyra and Will want to rescue him (they don’t even know that his is the enemy they have been fighting against) he just dissolves into nothing when the open the casket. So ironic I could hardly stand it. It is also of interest that nowhere in this book did it mention the name Jesus—it’s as if he never existed. I guess that made it easier to vilify the Authority—no Jesus, no grace and forgiveness, no compassion. Then it’s easy to have an evil Church. And it’s easy to have Lyra play the savior—freeing the dead from that purgatory-type place, saving the universe from the loss of Dust, and so on. While I am a little disturbed by the implications this book brought forth about organized religion, it still has great merit, I think, and should be read by everyone who likes to think about things from different angles. It may seem openly blasphemous, but underneath, it’s full of examples like extreme self sacrifice (when Lyra and Will agree to close all windows to other worlds) ferocious loyalty (girl/boy, human/daemon friend/friend, bear/human). And love, this story is full of love, and the romantic kind was only highlighted at the last minute. I am now extremely interesting in what they are going to do about the first book The Golden Compass and putting it on film. Where the plot leads, where the books go as far as idea-wise—I can’t really see filmmakers willing to go the whole way and to be completely true to the book, especially in the later books. It seems like it would be way too controversial—they probably have mobs of upset people protesting, like Dan Brown and the Da Vinci Code. I could see them changing the “message” of Pullman. But, I also may be very wrong, and we are going to have one heck of a ride.