[Cicero]

I'm very sorry to hear they are doing the Pullman trilogy. It's absolutely poisonous. No one should let their children get anywhere near the books.

My wife didn't believe me until she read the first book. It pulls you into the story, is regretably well written and well advertised--and then it does a real job of subtly turning every moral and religious principle upside down. By the end of the third novel it emerges that God is a tyrant, and the hero and heroine kill Him off and live happily ever after.

With Tom Stoppard on board it may do very well. But I urge people to stay away from it. In fact, I feel a little bad about giving a sleazy outfit like AOL Time Warner any money at all, but LOTR is just too good to miss.

[Karsus]

Don't let kids near the book? I guess that is easier than teaching them that everything they read is not true and imparting in them the ability to think for themselves. How can a series of books harm a child it that child has been taught correctly?

[JenB]

It's kinda amazing how people attack Harry Potter and ignore the Pullman series. You're right; poisonous is the best term for it. The blasphemy alone is bad enough, but Pullman's writing degerates so much in the last book. And there are plot bits left just hanging.