Lion Hearted Girl

After many years I've finally gotten around to finishing this trilogy!

I first read Northern Lights when it came out, I must have been about 11 or 12. I remember struggling through it because it was a little above my reading level - although I was fiercely proud of my reading abilities and wouldn't admit it - and then trying to read The Subtle Knife. A couple of chapters in I gave up and I didn't really give it much thought after that, although I admit I don't like leaving something unfinished.

At the end of August I decided to give it another go, and I re read Northern Lights as I couldn't remember a thing about it. Almost immediately I regretted abandoning the series.

It is wonderfully well written. Truly a really enjoyable fantasy series. The style flows well, the characters go through a lot of development, and - most importantly for fantasy - it feels believable. You believe in all these worlds, in daemons and witches, in armoured polar bears, Dust, angels, harpies, the Authority, Mulefa, Gallivespians...everything feels completely natural in that universe. And you learn about it without having to sit through endless appendices, family trees or potted histories. The writing really drew me in and I became invested in every character. I think one of the best things was that with some you didn't know who you could trust, and even characters that appeared minor ended up playing big roles. I also enjoyed the fact that there were so many subtle twists and turns that I didn't know how it would end. Unpredictability is pretty much vital in fantasy I feel - you don't want to start a series and think "oh, this is just like Fantasy Novel #23456 that I read". But likewise you don't want to take your reader though so many plot twists that they get irritated and lose interest.

If you're into fantasy/sci-fi and you haven't read this series yet then I don't think I can recommend it enough. I regret not reading it sooner, although I was delighted to find something that I enjoyed so much! I almost wasn't expecting it as my memories of it were very hazy. So happy to have been proven wrong!

I feel I'm pretty poor at writing reviews, I don't do it often. Normally I put a star rating and leave it at that. I like talking about books with my friends though so I thought I'd give this a shot and hopefully I'll improve. Generally I don't have big deep and meaningful thoughts about books, I like them because I like them!