His Dark Materials review by Tehanu

I must say this is a good essay on the Phillip Pullman trilogy and how it contrasts sharply with Tolkien's. I found HDM very readable, effective story, which I couldn't put down. The villain of the books was alluded to, hinted at, and described in such a way that he appeared to be a devil. Therefore, I was dismayed, when the villain of the piece is revealed, half way through the second book, to be God (I'm not kidding here, it's God with a big "G"). As Tehanu quotes one writer as saying, it is ‘the most vicious attack on organised religion this reviewer has ever seen’. It portrays God as being the enemy of our soul's happiness, by trying to separate us from what we love the most--ourselves. It is a celebration of the material world, with sin and separation from God being the highest achievements of mankind. Sin is portrayed as a necessary developmental milestone and the Fall as liberation.

As fantasy, these books feed our own worst nature. They answer the question, "what if we could live in a world where sin was good?"

These books should be kept away from all children.