30:120 The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman

The final installment in His Dark Materials trilogy.  Lyra and Will are being pursued by all sides, some to stop them and some to help them but none to tell them what is going on so they continue to stumble along doing what their gut instincts tell them to do and everyone else usually a few steps behind.  There is a big battle between Lord Asriel and Metatron.  Things get resolved, yada yada yada.

Honestly, this book was a slog.  The first book had some interesting world building and concepts going on so I stuck with it.  The second book was sloggy but I know that second books can do that so I went to the third hoping it would get better.

It didn't.

If anything, it was the worst of the three.  The character development was basically non-existent until the end when we must make Lyra and Will fall in love because that is the formula.  There were pages spent describing the scenery of every single world visited, every, single, time.  I didn't care about any of the characters, I didn't care if all the worlds went up in flames (actually that would have made it interesting).  It was dull, boring, predictable, and formulaic to the extreme and I honestly don't know what all the fuss was about with them.  I'm not glad I read them and I want those hours of my life back to spend reading books I would actually enjoy.

Page count: 465p/6,433p ytd/221,367p lifetime

111:120 The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman

The 2nd book in His Dark Materials trilogy.  Lyra has found her way into another world as she tries to follow her father and stop whatever it is he is planning on doing.  Will, a child from our world, has also found a way into this between world.  Now the two of them are being forced together by outside forces that they can't understand to try and save the worlds.  Along their journey, Will and Lyra find the wielder of the Subtle Knife, a knife that can cut doorways between the worlds when wielded by it's chosen person.  Now Will, is the wielder of the Subtle Knife and Lyra has been told by her alethiometer that she must help Will find his father.  Their journey sees them teamed up with the Witches that have come through following their calling to help Lyra on her quest and they are headed North to find their fate.

It was an okay installment but I found that it went slowly and it took a while to come together and feel truly cohesive.

Page count: 288p/31,038p ytd/212,076p lifetime

98:120 The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

The 1st book in His Dark Materials trilogy.  In a world where no one is ever alone because they all have their daemon familiars, something strange is happening.  Lyra takes little notice of the stories about the Gobblers who steal children except to use them in games of pretend until her friend is taken one night on the eve of her leaving Jordan College to go with the fascinating Ms. Coulter to the city.  Once in the city however, she starts learning disturbing things about Ms. Coulter and the Gobblers and something they call Dust.  She runs, frightened of what she hears and goes to the gyptians who have been hardest hit by the Gobblers with several of their children missing.  Now that Lyra is able to tell them the direction they have been taken, they are ready to take action and get their children back.  Lyra refuses to be left behind, which is all part of her fulfilling a destiny that she knows nothing of but must fulfill for the sake of everyone.  On her way, she will make some amazing friends including Iorek the Battle Bear.  Unfortunately, her destiny lies in a world far from her own and her friends may not be able to join her.

Yeah, I'm a few years behind on this one but I tend to not want to read things right as everyone else is.  I actually am not sure after the hubbub that I would have picked it up (I find that things rarely live up to their hype) but a friend sent me the series so it's been sitting on my shelf since it looked like something I might enjoy but I just hadn't gotten around to it.  I'm falling a bit behind on my new authors for the year so I figured I'd grab these to read and preview for my kids.  On the whole, it's an interesting new world but I found the characters shallow and the plot nothing new or spectacular.  The world kept me just interested enough that I will read the next one to see where things go but just barely.

Page count: 351p/26,402p ytd/207,440p lifetime