http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/043999358X/ref=sib_rdr_dp
SPOILER WARNING!
Yes, I must admit that on starting His Dark Materials (and half through The Golden Compass, to be honest) I didn't have high expectations -- I didn't think I would enjoy it as much as I did the Twilight series, the Harry Potter books, etc. I was curious and that was that. I'm done with all three books and I'm not sure if I like them as much as my other favourites.
But.
The final one, The Amber Spyglass is riveting. Part of its charm, no doubt, is that it's the most revealing, being the last one of the trilogy.
So Lyra and Will (the bearer of the Subtle knife, which can cut through anything in any world) find out about Dust, about themselves and about each other. At a cost. As I mentioned in my previous post on this, http://ricky-blue.blogspot.com/2009/03/golden-knife.html, she would probably have to pay a big price to fulfil the prophesy of the witches and she did. You cannot help but admire her courage. It's not the courage of the foolhardy who is brave because s/he does not think of the consequences. Once she realizes that to descend to the world of the dead, she will have to abandon her daemon (her own soul, remember), she suffers, but she still does not give up.
Will and Lyra go there to talk to her childhood friend, but eventually they find a way out of the world of the dead, which is a frighteningly dismal place of nothingess, to a world in a parallel universe where the spirits of the dead are finally free to unite with the air, earth and everything living.
And here is one important message of the book: the spirits of the dead cannot find the way out unless they solicit the help of creatures called harpies. The harpies in turn require them to tell the true story of their life and if they consider it untruthful or the ghosts have nothing to tell them then they won't guide them out: If they live in the world, they should see and touch and her and learn things. As Dumbledore in Half-blood Prince (If I remember right or was it the Order of the Phoenix?) points out, there are worse things that death. Lyra and Will's journey with the dead made me think that nothingness is one of them, because it means lack of consciousness, ie you don't even know if you exist and worse, you don't care. (will come back tot hat when talking about the specters). In this sense, it's better to have lived and died, then never to have done either.
The story develops in parallel plotlines and worlds, which helps to piece together the truth about Lyra's destiny, about Dust, the future of the worlds and of the Authority (ie God).
Writing about His Dark Materials now, I realize there are so many things to consider in the discussion of the four above that I'll need separate posts for each.
