Also slightly off-topic: I was wowed by the scope of His Dark Materials, and then was progressively disappointed by each subsequent installment. Read the first

Also slightly off-topic: I was wowed by the scope of His Dark Materials, and then was progressively disappointed by each subsequent installment. Read the first volume and stop: he never again achieves the magisterial Armored Bears. His angels, first conceived as cognizing architecture, devolve to petulant whiners by the end. It seems like he lost all interest after the first volume, but had contracted for a number of words to deliver, so did.