** spoiler alert ** 
 I finally finished the Dark Materials trilogy. I admit I had ulterior motives at trying to get this done as my Pendragon's Banner books came in this week and I want to get reading them, but after the events in The Subtle KNife I really wanted to see how things shook out in the finale. 
 Gotta say, this was good. I don't usually read this sort of book so it wasn't easy for me to get into this sort of writing but three books in and it was much easier. It was a good trilogy, the concepts were obviously quite controversial and I can kinda see why it caused all that bother, but it's a book at the end of the day, you know. 
 Apparently the American version of this book got censored. I don't know exactly what was censored but if I were to guess it would be the development of Will and Lyra's relationship. I'm not going to lie - it was a bit uncomfortable to read even for me. I don't know, if they had been a bit older it would have been sweet and enhanced things, but as they were supposed to be no older than twelve, it just felt a little creepy. Saying that though, the tragedy of their relationship was handled beautifully and their separation was done well. 
 I also enjoyed the redemption of Mrs Coulter as she realised (belatedly) her maternal instincts. I like multi-faceted villains. 
 Anyway - it was a really good series and I recommend it if you want to read something a bit different. Not going to lie, if you're not used to reading fantasy (or out of practice with it like me) it might be a little hard to get in that swing, but it's worth the effort.