itibaren Bang Pit, Laem Ngop District, Trat, Tayland
Holy Moley! We go from "Ripping Yarn" in the first two volumes to "Ripping Yarn + Theology" in The Amber Spyglass. That, plus tying up all the loose ends and touching base with just about every character from the first two volumes (even the dead ones... the whole middle third of the book, makes this a looooong goodread. It's got that basic LOTR Fantasy structure... little people doing heroic deeds and saving the universe (not one world, not a few, but all of them everywhere... or at least life on them), under the feet (and mostly under the radar) of great and powerful forces locked in a life and death struggle for domination of that pesky universe. Scratch the radar reference... it only exists in one of worlds involved, and isn't mentioned. We end on an upbeat note, with the future of our protagonists roughly determined but not explored, so there's ripe sequel material here. It's a little mawkish... I found myself humming "All you need is love" towards the end... but it still is a ripping yarn. Left undiscussed and undetermined - is there a God? There may be, or the god-like powers dispatched in the climax might have invented the mantle for themselves out of whole cloth. The Theology question also lies open, waiting for that sequel that doesn't yet exist. I see Pullman also wrote The Ruby in the Smoke, which was shown on Mystery! last fall... Sally Lockhart is a young Victorian woman who has detective-like adventures, apparently the first of a quartet of books that I think would be worth checking out.
I liked this book a lot, particularly the last few chapters. Dawkins makes some very interesting points. I wouldn't say it changed my life, but it is definitely worth a read.
This is written for bruhs and frat boys. The macho talk and the shit talk makes this worthy of a bathroom read, nothing more. I am glad I got this one for free. Added later:: After finishing this book, I still feel the same way I felt when I wrote the above. However, I might actually buy another book like this, but for the same reason. It is a chapter at a time kind of a book. That is why it took me so long to finish. All in all -- eh.