I gave this last volume of the Dark Materials Trilogy a four instead of a five because Pullman kind of lost me at the end. It was still a very very goI gave this last volume of the Dark Materials Trilogy a four instead of a five because Pullman kind of lost me at the end. It was still a very very good book. But somehow once the kids moved into the final grim death march toward the ending ... I started feeling like I was on a bit of a death march too. To Pullman's credit, I did finish the book, and I am a fickle reader who drops books like hot potatoes when they start to bore me. But still ... something about the last hundred pages or so kept this book from fully living up to the first two books....more