I've never read the book series before, and I quickly got confused as to sudden jumps in time and plot points that were barely fleshed out. It did make me want to go out and find the source material, so it might work better for a fan of the series than it did for me. ( )

Pretty good adaptation. Wish it was longer. ( )

His Dark Materials is one of my favourite book series of all time, so I was totally shocked and excited to stumble upon this graphic novel adaptation during a random browse of my local library's comic book section. The story a bit more simplified than I would like to see, but it's a long and complicated book, so I'll forgive them somewhat since they get the main gist of the story. What doesn't really make this a higher rated book is that the artwork falls somewhat short. In most graphic novels the emphasis is on the dialogue, with the visual narration meant to fill in any descriptive elements that the book would normally contain. The style of artwork used in this book - which to me is immediately identifiable as being quite French and highly simplified without being truely minimal - doesn't really convey the full depth of Pullman's literary masterpiece. His narrative style is both subtle and rich in description, which creates a highly atmospheric text that just doesn't mesh well with this style of art. It largely left me feeling like I was reading a story for little children with no active imagination, and left me yearning for the dusky eves of Lyra's gambols around Oxford, the majesty of Lord Asrael's daemon snow leopard, and the highly tense atmosphere of Lyra's time with her mother - as originally described by Pullman. I'll read the second volume to complete the story, but I wish that a better artist would have gotten hold of the story or that they had left it alone completely. ( )

Since I haven't read the novel in a while, I felt that I was able to enjoy the story as it is in this medium. Even so I did feel like things moved a bit fast sometimes, but that's usually my problem with graphic novel adaptations anyway. Overall, I enjoyed it. I have volume 2 and hope to start that soon. Unfortunate that volume 3 won't be out until September. XP ( )

This is a story of fantasy and adventure.