I finally finished reading the His Dark Materials Trilogy. Over all, I really enjoyed the books. I found it to be a nice combination of a youthful fantasy novel (mainly The Golden Compass), with a beautifully written transition to evaluate life overall (The Amber Spyglass). I can’t really decide which book was my favorite. Anyway, I’d like to get into a bit of spoiler related material, so if you don’t want any spoilers, don’t keep reading.

***SPOILERS*** (in case you didn’t read carefully)

When I get really into books, the hardest part about it is dealing with it being, well, over. I wasn’t entirely satisfied by the ending, although I think that Pullman did the right thing in writing it that way. It’s just, not the message I would have wanted to take out of the story at this point in my life. Basically, I interpreted it to mean that there are things that are completely and utterly out of your control, and no matter how much it sucks, that is just the way it is. I guess part of “growing up” is acknowledging this fact, but that is something I’m struggling against dealing with myself, so to see it happen to Lyra and Will was really sad. I was so happy when they first realized their love for each other, and the fact that this was quickly over shadowed by the burden that the two of them were forced to bear was so thoroughly heart wrenching.

Sigh, I suppose the sign that media can influence me so greatly might be a sign that I’ve still maintained some level of childhood, but it was still sad to have to see it lost upon Lyra and Will.