I've read all three of the books in this series. For a while it looks like it's going to be a great story, but then comes the lame part. I suggest you stop after the Golden Compass. You are not going to like the ending of this trilogy.

Author begins to make the church into the villian

This trilogy is indeed diabolical. The temptation- a captivating nicely written story- but beware of the message- the world view that the book is advocating is that God is really an evil angle that is just pretending to be the Creator. The devil’s revolt was actually the work of good angles and God should be killed. There is absolutely no discussion or attempt to show a different viewpoint. The evils of the church are the evils of god. period! I listened to the very end hoping that there was going to be some discussion or debate, but no. In the end, this is a bigoted narrow-minded hateful worldview that is pretending to be humanistic. And of course there is no possible way to see things differently! If you think this is just a bit or harmless fun and should not be taken seriously, be careful. Messages like these may work on your subconscious reasoning. Analyze the message carefully! If you hate God this is the book for you.

The Golden Compass was an intriguing story, with a clever female protaganist and imaginative elements that fascinated me. This led me to listen to The Subtle Knife, which let me down. Pullman introduced Will, the male accomplice to Lyra, and made her look like an incompetent fool that generally followed Will around. I thought that the idea of flipping the monotheistic theology on it's head with the false God was an interesting idea and I was not afraid of reading the books for that reason, but Pullman's hate and negativity ended up ruining a great fantasy and left me in a slump. I can't get myself to read the third book, especially after reading reviews of it. My advice is to stop with the first book, the second book will bring you down. I love Harry Potter books - yes there are some non-Christian writings in it, but it's not hateful. Who wants to teach children hate? Pullman does!

This is the second book in the series and the author's beliefs begin to be known. Christian parents should not allow their children to read.

This is definitely not a children's series and those that make comparisons to Harry Potter are mistaken. Clearly this is the antithesis to C.S. Lewis' Narnia books. It is blatantly anti-God, anti-church (of any kind) and the sad part is that Mr. Pullman doesn't actually seem to comprehend the theology he so unabashedly despises. The story is engaging, but parents beware, this is a book with an agenda. It's a treatise dressed up like a story and with a rather mean spirit at its heart.