Splashed out a little while back and bought myself the box set of the trilogy. I just read these last year (which was the first time), but some books lend themselves to earlier re-reading than most, and Pullman's literate fantasy cycle - supposedly written for children, and I can imagine the books having a huge impact on receptive ones, but of course we know better than to be misled by those kinds of 'supposedlies' - seemingly falls into that category.
This time round, there was less urgency to my reading - less haste to plow through and find out what would happen next, what strange wonder would emerge from the next casket to be opened - and I was better able to appreciate the craft and the elegance of the novel...the way it sets up a cascading series of uncertainties and realignments in its opening chapters, the deft way in which leaps from setting to setting are handled and foreboding inklings of future possibilities are introduced, the lyricism and grandeur of its key descriptive and imaginative passages. A'course, I have been reading it through the prism of the book's being primarily written for children (or, perhaps more accurately, that nebulous class of person which only seems to exist for the purpose of the marketing of books, 'young adults'), and made corresponding allowances, but it's darn good on any terms and remains so on a second reading.
Thoughts on first reading here, and also on The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, both probably soon to also be re-devoured.
