Eek! I'd completely forgotten about the Swallows and Amazons books. I absolutely loved them as a kid - maybe that's why I felt at home with Aubrey and Maturin... certainly softened me up for characters talking about bilge and knots and stuff.. (cheers eli)

Sorry. Seem to have strayed off topic. As a remedy, allow me to say that I'm surprised so many people were disappointed with The Amber Spyglass - yeah, the style is a little different, more languid than the first two, but I'd never have thought it was enough to make people lose interest. And TAS makes sense of the philosophy of the whole series - for me, it couldn't be complete without it.

Prompted by all this, I went back and read the ending again this evening - and bugger me if I didn't start crying again. It's getting embarrassing... [grunts, spits, starts talking about football and car mechanics]