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Liked It

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
Anndria C
  • Rated 4 stars

A real page turner. It is similar to Harry Potter, but the characters are not as endearing. The story is much darker and ends in a serious cliffhanger. The heroine is spunky, tough, and very intelligent though she uses an uneducated dialect. She also was a bit of a bully with other children, and that made her less than endearing in the beginning. I found the book more violent than the HP books, and several characters are quite despicable. The setting is in another world, but with some things...

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Didn’t Like It

1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
louci
  • Rated 2 stars

I didn't like this book or the others in the series. My dislike had nothing to do with the "atheistic undertones", either. I thought the reading was hard to follow and not appropriate for the audience. The plot and characters were too complicated for the intended audience. I read a LOT, and many different types of books. I just didn't like these.

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Community:
  • Rated 4.007162 stars
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  • Rated 0 stars
 

Newest Comments

  • Halloween

    halloween said:

    yea brandi and kat are totally right. the series was indeed a very badass one. the first book really kicked it off. it made me want to read the other two without a doubt. Pullman wrote brilliantly in this book and all the others. a great fantasy book really.

    posted 13 days ago
  • Brandi

    brandi said:

    I agree completely with Kat. It was just a wonderful book. Why bother trying to analyze it to death? Now, I was able to vaguely see the connection to Christianity in the movie, especially after all the controversy but that doesn't change how much I thoroughly enjoyed the series. If you can take the books at face value, they're wonderful and engaging adventures. If you want to read them because of the controversy, I suggest having an open mind and remembering that kids won't be able to make the connection by ANY stretch of the imagination.

    posted 3 weeks ago
  • Kat

    kat said:

    I personally didn't really see the connection between the book and Christianity. Maybe because I read it before the movie was released, or that I wasn't even aware that there was a controversy like that surrounding it. I read it purely for the story, which I thoroughly enjoyed. To me, it's a journey of discovery and truth for Lyra, her friends and her world. I don't see it as anything more than that. Cheers!

    posted 3 weeks ago
  • David M

    david m said:

    No, you need to finish the series to see where it's going. Pullman does seem bitter towards Christianity, but when you finish the books you realize that that's not actually what was going on. It's much deeper than that. I find him to be an extremely thought-provoking religious commentator. He points to an alternate religion, and I find it fascinating. It does have an atheistic taste until the end, but it's worth it. It's also worth pointing out that while the land in the books is obviously based on the actual book, it is not an exact replica. Many practices of the church in these books don't actually occur in real life. It's not that Pullman is suggesting that they do happen; he's just providing an alternative world.

    posted Monday, June 23 2008
  • vaerna

    vaerna said:

    I read it with an open mind and just don't understand the connection with the pantheons of the author and the Bible. I didn't get that feeling. I felt it was a bit dark for a young audience. I am curious to read the other two books.

    posted Monday, June 23 2008
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