Finished the Pullman Trilogy

So I'm done. Whew!

***Mini Spoilers Below! - Proceed At Your Own Risk!***

I'm not convinced this is the great Atheist treatise so many people wind up believing it is. It's a nice story. Sometimes there are points in the narrative that I wish he would just tell me what he's getting at - almost as if he wants to say something with his allegories, but can't easily put it into words. At those times, his prose suffers, but generally it's a good set of fantasy books.

Yes, there are points in the stories where most religious people would be offended or consider them too controversial (for one reason or another) to be children's material. This is definitely intentional on Pullman's part and impossible to miss (heavy handed?). There are points where the underlying message seemed a bit forced and occasionally disrupt the flow of the story. It's still a worthy read.

I get the feeling that Pullman is less of an Agnostic or a Satanist as he sometimes promotes himself (to great consternation for some and attention in general) and more of a dedicated (reckless?) heretic. In that, he and I are have some points of agreement. In other aspects of faith, we differ greatly. If nothing else, it's a great book for allowing you to examine your thoughts on some very important points of faith. For that, it does succeed and is recommendable. I would argue that, when approached with an open and curious state of mind (i.e. not blindly), the Bible already fills this need in our existing theological bibliography. The inevitable controversy surrounding interpretations and abuses of the Bible, however, creates a vacuum that this trilogy fits into fairly well.

The ending (which I will not give away, but is complete with a thought-provoking "Hmmmmmm" moment) is saved until the very last sentence. If anyone else has read through all three books, let's talk about what it all meant in the comments.