That's pretty rich in itself, coming from the author of "His Dark Materials," which whether you like it or not, is so metaphorically and allegorically over-rich with respect to the author's obvious angst and disdain for Catholicism specifically, and organized Christianity generally, as to be ... well, almost un-rereadable by any thoughtful person.
I visited a relative in hospital recently and found myself listening to the audio of a super-trashy TV show a patient in the next bed was watching. It was fascinating. The acting was wooden and stilted as though being read out from the page, the dialogue was so direct and explicit it was painful “You know why I hate him so much, because he cheated me out of my inheritance!”. It was almost Mexican soap opera level. And yet it was captivating, because I found myself wondering about the business model that produces such material, who the audience is, what it’s like to be an actor on a drama like that. Even if something is terrible, there’s so much to analyse to discover why it’s terrible, and why some people might like it anyway.
Having said that, I felt ‘the golden compass’ holds up much better than the sequels — better character development, less didactic, amazing word building.
(Edited to avoid potential spoilers)
There are some misfires. And though I assume you meant to say "world building", the word building is a particular weak point. He decided that, in an alternate history where the word for electricity derived from the Arabic word for amber rather than the Greek one, it was perfectly plausible for the modern form of an original "anbar" to be "anbar". That can't happen.
If you want to see a series of novels with strong word building, check out Katharine Kerr's Deverry series. ;D
My feeling is HDM is to Dune what Eragon is to Lord of the Rings. The former in these comparisons don't apply much imagination to their real-world influences.
The latter in these comparisons are still clearly inspired by real-world themes and tropes, but they're more imaginative in how they combine and diverge from their inspirations, probably owing to a richer depth of experiences and influences that the respective authors had been exposed to.
This is an interesting comparison. I have not read Eragon, but I have read reviews that say it's a transparent reskinning of Star Wars. Assuming that's true, the form of an analogy between Eragon and Lord of the Rings would be
Eragon : Lord of the Rings :: Star Wars : The Sword of Shannara
(For the record, I consider Lewis the better writer, but grief the “Simple Christianity” can get a bit much at times.)
There are processions of angels bearing the corpse of a dead god. The alethiometer is specifically stated to function through divine grace. It's not so much a religious metaphor as an out-and-out religious story. What's not to notice?
Seriously, though, I agree, the phrasing I used was a little over-wrought itself. My apologies. My point really was that if Pullman believes that Durrell's book was "too rich" to be re-read by him, he should understand that the limitations in Durrell's work that lead him to that conclusion are over-present in his own His Dark Materials.