Book: Northern Lights, Philip Pullman

First things first: no, this wasn't as good as Harry Potter. I know that's going to annoy those anti-establishment types but it's true.

That's not to say it's not a bad book. I quite liked the universe it was set in, although the fact that a lot of words were not only made up but taken as given by the author did irritate me a bit. Of course as I set more into the book these things mattered less, but I guess I need a little bit of hand-holding when being thrown into a new world.

Oh and it's quite dark, graphic and violent at times too, but not unnecessarily so, so this wasn't that big a deal. The characters, although not as deep as I would have liked, are multi-dimensional; the book constantly keeps you on your toes by making it so ambiguous as to who you're supposed to be gunning for.

But the book is well written and ultimately enjoyable. At least enough to carry on in the trilogy: expect a review of the next instalment soon.