I heard about Phillip Pullman‘s “His Dark Materials” trilogy in the context of the Harry Potter furor; people described it as “the thinking kid’s Harry Potter.” Having grown up a voracious reader, I had found Harry Potter a bit disappointing, and lacking in comparison to my favorites, so I was interested to see what was up.

I enjoyed the books quite a bit, and found that they had the kind of depth that characterizes truly great young-adult fiction. (One of my recurring rants is the way that a lot of art made for kids is lobotomized; the best stuff is artfully layered so that it has something for everyone, no matter their age or experience. I only got as far as the first HP book, but I found it lacking in this regard.)

I hadn’t heard, but apparently they’ve adapted the trilogy into a pair of stage plays. Given the unfavorable slant Pullman’s books have on organized religion, I was a bit curious to find commentary on the plays by the Archbishop of Canterbury run recently in the Guardian.