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In three words: epic, heartbreaking, imaginative.

"'But I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are. All we can say is that this is a good deed, because it helps someone, or that's a evil one, because it hurts them. People are too complicated to have simple labels.'"

Challenge: #MyEverymansLibrary

Note: This Everyman's Library edition contains all three books of the trilogy (Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass), so some of this review might be a bit spoilery.

I first read the His Dark Materials books a good few years ago, so, naturally, I barely remembered anything from books two and three. I was more familiar with the first book simply because I've watched the film in recent years (I think I might even have seen it twice, not because it's a great film but just because it happened to be shown on TV!).

When I first read this trilogy, I remember not really liking the religious references - I found them quite heavy, a bit boring to read, and I can't say I really understood them either. While rereading the books, I did find that I still didn't particularly like to focus on this aspect of the story, and there were points where I found myself skimming a little bit just to get through the especially dense parts. There is a lot of detail in these books, and so many different themes are covered - religion, science, adolescence, death, and others - that I think there's probably something to interest everyone. Pullman does an incredible job weaving all these together in a way that is (mostly) very readable and thought-provoking.

You might be wondering why I've still given this trilogy five stars (rounded up from 4.5) despite not liking the heavy-handedness of some of the subject matter, and the reason for this is simple: the characters. I've probably said it before, but characters will absolutely make or break a book for me.

I'm a complete sucker for cute non-human characters, so although I loved the protagonist Lyra anyway, I of course completely adored her dæmon, Pan. And speaking of dæmons, I thought that Lyra's world (in which a part of everyone's soul is in the form of an animal called a dæmon, whom they can talk to and interact with) was so well imagined and richly detailed. (We've had the Patronus test... I need the dæmon test now, please and thank you.)

Each book gets more complex than the last. Firstly, they start to move between worlds: book one is set in Lyra's world; book two introduces us to Will, who lives in a world like ours, and follows their adventures in these two worlds; and book three moves between several different worlds. And as well as the settings changing and increasing in number, Will and Lyra are growing and changing, and encountering all sorts of challenges. The finale of The Amber Spyglass is so heartbreaking but I also think it was really well done and a great end to the series.

I think His Dark Materials deserves a place in my library because its epic scope and cast of vividly drawn and memorable characters means that it is well deserving of being called a 'modern classic'. It's definitely a trilogy that I want to reread again in the future - because it is so complex and detailed, I think I'll find something new each time I go back to it.

Recommended for: people who wish to read a wonderfully imagined fantasy with a lot of heart and profound themes.

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Review also posted .