One of the most famous and beloved fantasy book trilogies you can think of. One that has been tried to adapt into a movie, but it failed, as some things (okay, most things!) are probably best left in book form. It’s so epic, I can only compare it to Harry Potter. If you haven’t read it yet, let me see if I can remedy that!
★★★★★ Endless number of stars
His Dark Materials is a sweeping epic that tells of a story bigger than you can imagine, but it’s also a story told through the smallest characters – a story of a world, the fate of which lies in the hands of children. In a way, it’s all about the fight between good and evil, wisdom and darkness, but not in your usual fantasy sense. This is more philosophical than you might have expected it to be, but it’s also so imaginative, so full of adventure and unbelievable details, that you’ll never get bogged down with any of the philosophy. It’s a series that you can eat through a week – no matter how long the books actually are. You won’t sleep, if you have to.
Reason #1.
Don’t You Just Wish Your Cat Was Your Daemon??
Daemons are talking animals that are… curiously, they’re part of you. They’re kind of your spirit animal, which also makes up part of your soul. It’s incredibly interesting, cute, and it goes so well with the story! You can talk to it, it will help you and defend you, and even if you’re utterly and completely alone, it will be your companion. It’s likely that by the end of the series, you will find yourself trying to figure out what your daemon would look like. Or maybe even does look like. (more on why I say that – in the actual book!)
Reason #2.
There Are Wonders And Mysteries
Obviously, it wouldn’t be cool if I just gave it away to you, now would it. But let me just tell you that there are worlds to explore. That there are reasons the entire world is falling, and you need to find them out. And the reasons are all pretty grand as well. It’s not your typical overused YA tropes either, for example – oh, this or that super power has just decided to thwart the main character and their family, and you need a special snowflake to fix it. No, it’s far better than that! That said, the main character (who is a little girl) IS special, and she’s IS key to the saving of the world, but she’s no special snowflake. We’re getting to that in the next point.
Reason #3.
The Characters Have Flaws, They’re Not Perfect
Having imperfect characters is great! Especially so, because it prevents the aforementioned ‘special snowflake’ syndrome. The main female character, Lyra, is as flawed as can be – she lies, she’s not loyal, she’s subject to other people’s manipulation. She is also ridiculously dramatic, and it’s maintained throughout the entire series in the way she talks (I specifically loved that!). The main male character Will is also a great character. He’s strong willed and he’s trustable, but he can also be ruthless, hard and cold. Both of them symbolize many things, but typical special snowflakes they are not. As for symbolizing? We get to point 4…
Reason #4.
The Symbolism
This story has layers upon layers of symbolism, mostly to do with mythologies, or namely – Christian mythologies, exposing them quite ruthlessly at times. This is magical and super interesting, merging religious symbolism with scientific fantasy (is that.. a thing, scientific fantasy..?), and weaving together a magical build of the world, of the universe. I will not tell you what the main characters (and many others) symbolize, because that would take away from your pleasure of discovering it yourself. However, if you are religious (not only Christian, basically, any religion that is based on a single deity) – be warned, as this book might seem controversial to you. It’s not kind to organized religion. You need an open mind to read it. If you are religious, and still really want to read it (which you should!), I suggest remembering that this is just fiction and it’s an invented world.
Reason #5.
The Feels
This series ends with a bad case of the feels. As bad as it gets. But it’s also the kind of feels you want in a book! Basically, the kind of feels we all read books for. But please, prepare napkins.
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Popular Highlights in this book
“That’s the duty of the old,” said the Librarian, “to be anxious on behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.”Highlighted by 1,386 Kindle readers- That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling.Highlighted by 708 Kindle readers
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From the Publisher
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| His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book 1) | His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife (Book 2) | His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass (Book 3) | The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage (Volume 1) | The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth (Volume 2) | |
| Enter the world of His Dark Materials | The modern fantasy classic soon to be an HBO original series – HIS DARK MATERIALS! | The second book in the HIS DARK MATERIALS series – soon to be an HBO original series! | The third book in the HIS DARK MATERIALS series – soon to be an HBO original series! | Set in the same world as HIS DARK MATERIALS - meet Lyra before the events of The Golden Compass! | Set in the same world as HIS DARK MATERIALS - discover what happened to Lyra after The Amber Spyglass! |
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Customer reviews
You could be here wanting to know how good the book was
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2017
Books are tricky to rate. You could be here wanting to know how good the book is, or you might want to know if you should buy this particular format. I do not like this format. The book is very small, and the pages are almost as thin as those of The Bible. The story is a different matter.
Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2017
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Reviewed in the United States on December 9, 2017
Reviewed in the United States on December 4, 2018
Great edition of a great series!
By Amazon Customer on December 4, 2018
The Golden Compass is a great book! I have yet to read the other two volumes in the series, which is why I bought this particular edition. It’s thick, but compact. Came with a ribbon marker and dust jacket. Seems like it will hold up well, also. If you want all three books, this is the one to get. I saw some complaints that the print is small, but it looks about average in comparison to the size of the book. I would buy again and highly recommend!
By Amazon Customer on December 4, 2018
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Reviewed in the United States on December 6, 2017
You could be here wanting to know how good the book was
By Nina Willow on December 5, 2017
Books are tricky to rate. You could be here wanting to know how good the book is, or you might want to know if you should buy this particular format. I do not like this format. The book is very small, and the pages are almost as thin as those of The Bible. The story is a different matter.
By Nina Willow on December 5, 2017
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Reviewed in the United States on April 7, 2019
Such a deal!!!
By Kroh Lykwoh on April 7, 2019
Excellent, I am absolutely thrilled with this set! I can't wait to re-read these before the new book (the book of dust). For $12 it's a steal. (The series is amazing, everyone should read it)
By Kroh Lykwoh on April 7, 2019
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Reviewed in the United States on May 31, 2017
Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2021
Top reviews from other countries
ClockworkSatan
Wonderful... Just... Wonderful
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 4, 2019
S7
Fantastic book set - all three together - DO NOT READ THE FOREWORD THOUGH - it has huge spoilers in it.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 18, 2016
SusannahB
A Fantastic Trilogy Combined in One Paperback Edition
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 16, 2019Barry Mulvany
I thought it got progressively worse in each book
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on February 21, 2020
