I bought this book on impulse, put off reading it for several days, and then finally got around to it on a wet Sunday afternoon. About four heart-rending, nail-biting, stomach-churning hours later I ran out of my house, got into my car, drove into town and bought the sequel. Then I went on line and bought the final installment of the trilogy from Amazon.
This book is, in a word, amazing. A review on the back compares it to Star Wars, and it is correct. The scope of this book is astonishing, and what is equally astonishing is how warm-hearted and human it manages to remain despite its epic qualities.
Having read several reviews here on Amazon that complain about unanswered questions in the book, I should like to point out that it is the FIRST in a TRILOGY. If all the questions were answered then why would you go back and read it's sequels? Of course some of the deeper and more profound themes are not neatly tied in a bow - though I can assure you that they are eventually. What is important is that the individual story-lines and character conflicts within each individual volume are satisfactorially resolved by the end of each book.
I would also like to say that while I enjoyed the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy from Phillip Pullman, I don't consider them superior to this series of books in any way, mostly because I found Pullman's grasp of children's development under pressure to be a little superficial. He does not convey, as Nicholson does, the way that people, regardless of age, can be transformed into something base, glorious or dangerous depending on circumstance, while still remaining themselves.
In closing, I would advise any parent to buy these books for their children - but don't let them get their hands on them until you've read 'The Wind on Fire' first.