This trilogy started out with so much promise! What went wrong? I'll tell you what went wrong. Well, no I won't. But the first book was really fun to read. I'm still in the third. It's one of those that I dread reading, but I feel a stupid obligation to finish a book once I've started.

Golden Compass is great. Fun characters, intriguing plot, some mystery and suspense. The Subtle Knife is about half as good. It introduces a somewhat enjoyable new character with a really cool knife, which is neat. Things start to get a bit more bizarre, though, with Pullman's religious opinions leaking more profusely onto the pages.

What I've read so far of The Amber Spyglass is, well, really not good at all. The characters are barely even there or unconscious. The plot has become completely bizarre. I can't keep track of who is in what universe, and I don't really care. Mostly, Pullman is just telling us how evil God is. If you can find a way to tell yourself that it is just fiction and the God he's talking about is not our God, maybe you'd have better luck. I can't seem to get around it.

My advice, just read the Golden Compass and Subtle Knife, and then find a spoiler online to find out how the series ends.