I've just noticed the negative responses above to Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. I have to disagree. I think it's an absolutely wonderful series which presents real moral dilemmas and an alternative view of "God" which probably works better for those of a more agnostic bent. Someone said they felt he had an axe to grind. I didn't think that at all, though he clearly feels strongly about some of the deeper messages of the books. But I thought the stories were beautifully conceived and absolutely magical. Anyway, proselytising through children's literature is accepted in something like Narnia, which is one long Christian allegory - no one accuses CS Lewis of having an axe to grind. If anything, Pullman is the anti-Lewis; he undermines certain ideas about Christianity through the same medium that Lewis promoted them. Oooh, a battle for our children's souls! To be honest, my daughter loved Narnia when she was litte, but didn't really get on with His Dark Materials. But she's still an agnostic. :)

"The most notable quality of Pullman is the total lack of humour, quite the opposite of JKRowling."

Actually, the most notable quality of Pullman in comparison to JK Rowling is his ability as a writer. His Dark Materials is far more sophisticated writing, both conceptuially and in execution, than Harry Potter. I find a lot of Rowling's writing creaky and forced, especially after the third book. The overall story arc often works very well indeed, but there are too many convenient plot devices, and predictable twists, and, perhaps most importantly, I stopped believing in the characters (and especially a lot of the dialogue) from about book 5 - 7. She seemed to do better with them when they were little kids.


Aaaaanyway, someone reccommended William P Young's The Shack earlier. I could not disagree more. Absolutely cringeworthy, dreadful stuff. Grade-school theology - patronising, contrived, exploitative...as one of my friends was wont to say, the book contains "hidden shallows". IMHO.

So - on to the reason I came onto this thread! Has anyone read Affluenza, by Oliver James? They were discussing it on Book Club on Radio 4 last week and I thought it sounded really interesting. I thought I'd see whether anyone here has any views about it...