About The Stories:
The Northern Lights
Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

The Subtle Knife
Lyra and Will, her newfound friend, tumble separately into the strange tropical otherworld of Cittàgazze, "the city of magpies," where adults are curiously absent and children run wild. Here their lives become inextricably entwined when Lyra's alethiometer gives her a simple command: find Will's father. Their search is plagued with obstacles--some familiar and some horribly new and unfathomable--but it eventually brings them closer to Will's father and to the Subtle Knife, a deadly, magical, ancient tool that cuts windows between worlds. Through it all, Will and Lyra find themselves hurtling toward the center of a fierce battle against a force so awesome that leagues of mortals, witches, beasts, and spirits from every world are uniting in fear and anger against it.

The Amber Spyglass
Along with the return of Lyra, Will, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel, Dr. Mary Malone, and Iorek Byrnison the armored bear, The Amber Spyglass introduces a host of new characters: the Mulefa, mysterious wheeled creatures with the power to see Dust; Gallivespian Lord Roke, a hand-high spy-master to Lord Asriel; and Metatron, a fierce and mighty angel. And this final volume brings startling revelations, too: the painful price Lyra must pay to walk through the land of the dead, the haunting power of Dr. Malone's amber spyglass, and the names of who will live—and who will die—for love. And all the while, war rages with the Kingdom of Heaven, a brutal battle that—in its shocking outcome—will reveal the secret of Dust.

It is a few years since I read this book with its three stories. I checked Goodreads to see how I scored them. Northern Lights & The Subtle Knife I enjoyed and scored them eight each, but the final in the saga was a disapointment. I scored that one two, a big difference. The final story was also the only one I did a review of and I have copied it here.
The Amber Spyglass:
After the two previous in the series, the final was a disappointment. Too many problems with logic. An example. The dead walked to the afterlife, but the man who rows them over says he's had to carry small babies. If the dead have to walk there, how do babies get to the boat?
Another example. The souls escape and enrich the land, but only one land. What about the other lands?
Two twelve year olds fall in love that will last a lifetime. I didn't buy it. I had to keep reminding myself they were twelve years old and not twenty. Then reasons were found to keep them apart that seemed so forced. The author did not want them to be together, wanted the tragic ending of a love affair (Here I remind you they are only twelve year old children - hardly the stuff of great love affairs.) and forced reasons to keep them apart. Also writing about twelve year olds having sex is warped.
Did Philip Pullman change his editor or someone that assisted with his first two books?

I averaged the scores and got six.

Released at Hudson's Café in the National Botanic Gardens, Canberra. Today is our local monthy Bookcrossing meet. Enjoy.

D-face took the book.


Released in Becky’s memory.
Becky’s Hugs page

Starting the next part of its journey from a little free library in Curtin