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At 17:00 20/02/2008, you wrote: >2/3rds of the way through Northern Lights with the children. My >daughter has read it already but enjoys it being read a second time. >I am really enjoying it - excellent book. Looking forward to the >other two. Like the allusions to string theory. Bit like the Narnia / C S Lewis series it works on many different levels, and there are a number of other similarities to LWW and LOTR which become more apparent as the series moves on. Still I was surprised when I found out it was intended to work as a young adult's (children's) book. Accepting linguistic shortcomings, how many non-literati parents (let alone children) could translate (definitions below): evanescent carapace sark (of chain-mail) nimbus tocsin mephitic gouts (I KNOW at least one on list will have no trouble with this) Not in the text but a chapter title: à outrance How many children or young adults will really understand "wielding the stick like a fencer's _foil_"? (I did a little fencing when younger) Maybe my wordpower is exceptionally limited compared to the potential readers of this book but this seemed very odd editing. But well worth reading for anyone with an interest in Sci-Fi / Fantasy, philosophy, ethics or even how physics affects literature (brane / string theory, collapse of probability waves, quantum linkage). Julian evanescent vanishing carapace shell sark (of chain-mail) a shirt nimbus halo tocsin a signal (bell) that warns of imminent danger mephitic poisonous / offensive gouts large blobs or clots