In The Courier Mail today, four Australian fantasy writers discuss the His Dark Materials trilogy in a roundtable, going into quite some depth. The authors talk of Pullman's role in the trend in fantasy away from the Tolkein-style Norse and Celtic worlds and into more, “The Romantic Age plus the Industrial Age, a hellish kind of poetry.” They do however agree that they find the latter two novels somewhat inferior to The Golden Compass and disparage Pullman's slide into polemic in The Amber Spyglass. The four raise many interesting points throughout the piece and it's well worth taking the time to read through. Read the article.