His Dark Materials – Phillip Pullman
Just finished the 3rd volume of this. All I can say is I’m glad I’m finished it. If I hadn’t bought the whole thing at the same time from Amazon UK I probably wouldn’t have continued.
But since I’d bought them anyway I decided to finish. I agree completely with the views expressed in the books about religion, churches, the need for people to be nice to each other and the need to respect the environment. But as a story the series just didn’t grab me and draw me into the Universe Pullman creates. I’m sure that the philosophy outlined in the series will be new and enlightening to many people who read them. This can only be a good thing. The more people who think for themselves and judge the world based on reason and evidence, as opposed to on faith and dogma, the better.
For this reason I’m glad the books are a success and are selling very well. It’ll be a while however before I take them down from the bookcase to read for pleasure.