Good point... though I was trying to figure out whether or not I should read the books. I need some form of recommendations that don't go against my beliefs completely.
Well, I don't know what I should tell you, but I would recommend you read
The Golden Compass at least to get a taste for the writing style of the series. That and
The Subtle Edge are both somewhat self-contained, but I would not expect a
completely satisfactory resolution unless you read all three, have a good think, rage against nature and then read them all again.
The underlying theme is sort of theological, in that the Church (of another world, think of an Inquisition that just went on) is opposed to more free thinkers aspiring to create a "True Republic of Heaven". (Also, there is a civil war in Heaven.) In this pursuit, the nature if the soul, of growing up and the very nature of creation (His Dark Materials, if you will) becomes important, and there is a diverse cast of characters that either wants to answer those questions, or to silence those who asks them.
More than anything, however, it is a story about growing up, of facing adversity, of the dangers of blindly following dogma and of reckless pursuit of the unobtainable. It is also about friendship, family, love and hatred. Much of the books can be read as metaphors, but in its own right the series holds exiting action and inriguing settings.
I started the series by reading
The Subtle Edge, but as I was very young and had not read the preceding book, I did not pick up on much of the deeper themes continued from TGC. Still, the book held up on its own, and after I read it again a few years later, I decided that I needed the other two books as well. After reading them all in sequence, I will not tell in what state the ending left me(spoilers!), but I was in quite the profound mood afterwards, as well.
There are nobody I would
not recommend
His Dark Materials to, but that is because I believe that the books will either resonate with you from the start, or you'll grow as a person in some very small way to get more out of them. I will say, though, that if your preferences runs entirely in one narrow genre like chick lit or crime thrillers, this might not be for you. That is the only disqualifying condition I can think of, however. You might not love the series, but I would recommend it on the likely chance you do.
Edit: Also, as Mr. pepperjack pointed out, Lyra Silvertongue reads like a tough, tomboyish kid of twelve, that earned her title. She is a child, yes, but she and the other kids also used to beat the shit out of the Gyptian (Gypsy) kids, and get fucked up in return, in the back streets and docks of whatever city she lived in. She is not an idealised kid as us adults tends to write them. And Will, a protagonist that comes in later in the series, he starts the book with the (mostly accidental) murder of a man that threatened his mentally ill mom, and like many mature but still young kids would, he runs off and stumbles across the plot. And fun times are had by all.[/blatant lies]
