Books to Read Poster No 33

Well, we must be roughly a third of the way through now, which doesn't seem like much considering how long I've had the poster. 

I noticed recently that a vertical column had no books on it read at all, and a horizontal row that had only one book done. Happily where they intersected I actually had the book(s) so that was what I picked to read next. 

Here's the picture 

and given that, and that  I previously mentioned it was a trilogy I suspect it's an easy guess for some; His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman. This is another one I had previously read, and I remembered one and two quite clearly and whole swathes of number three not at all. I suspect that that was an elective amnesia, because while I enjoyed the first two I loathed the last one. I found it confused, over-written and deeply depressing. In addition I'm not quite sure what demographic he was aiming for. Books 1 and 2 would excite and enthrall anyone from 10 up, but I'd be loth to give Book 3  to anyone in their early teens who wasn't fairly mature and optimistic in their outlook. I know Pullman is militaristically atheist  and that's fair enough, and I agree with him that the institution of the church has done terrible cruel and unforgiveable things in its long history. but I don't feel I need to be clapped around the head with it quite so forcibly and for quite so long, especially with no recognition of some of the good that it's done. 

That said there are some fabulous characters in these books; he has  a gift for creating people who almost leap off the page, and they're rounded ones too, no-one is totally good or bad. Sone of his ideas are fabulous too; the armoured bears, the witch clans, the whole concept of daemons .... Really I wish he'd just stopped at the end of Book 2! 

I know he has since written more about Lyra since but I don't think I can face it. Certainly not yet.