Esslam Ben Ramadan

Although not my favorite this book had its moments of intrigue and kept me reading endlessly as I yearned to learn more. My only issue with the book is how Lyra the main protagonist in the first book is cast aside in favour of Will. I'm hoping that this is intentional to build Will's character up as he and Lyra will have an important part to play in the last book.

I feel it's easy to try and understand this book at surface level and just take it for what it is. However my interpretation is of a human who has experienced something extremely difficult and in conclusion of this story he wanted to gift us with his means of survival rather than the main focus being for us to believing this outlandish story of his survival. I guess my conclusions is we have to ask ourselves why is one story easier for us to believe than the other and how much the power of interpretation can help in situations of extreme difficulty.

Following one of the rules in the books, which is to tell the truth I decided to be as honest as possible whilst reviewing. A lot of the content within the book resonated with me and has given me a lot of food for thought about my life and how I'm living it. Around half way through the book I decided to read some reviews to get a general feel from other people who have read it and I found that much of my concerns and opinions were shared. The book has a lot of good inside of it but also has a lot misinterpretation and skewing of stories and quotes to fit an argument. That being said I feel I'm a more compassionate, understanding and thoughtful person through reading it which is why I would recommend it to anybody looking for a little guidance through this journey we call life.

I decided to read the book after watching the first episode of His Darkest Materials and instantly falling in love with the story and world created by Phipllip Pullman. Althought often refered to as a kids book, there are some subtleties and deeper meanings here that make this a much deeper book then what might be anticipated. This was an incredibly easy ready, with amazing writing and good progression.