The Amber Spyglass: Philip Pullman Ends His Dark Materials in the Land of the Dead
Will is the bearer of the knife. Now, accompanied by angels, his task is to deliver that powerful and dangerous weapon to Lord Asriel, on the orders of his dying father. But how can he go looking for Lord Asriel when Lyra is gone? Only with her help can he make sense of the myriad plots and intrigues that beset him.
Author: Philip Pullman
Title: The Amber Spyglass (2000), His Dark Materials 3
Format: English Kindle edition
Scope: Final book of the trilogy; winner of the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year
Amazon: www.amazon.es/dp/B00SSJYFB0 (ASIN B00SSJYFB0)
Worlds Lining Up for War
The two great powers of the many worlds are lining up for war, and Will must find Lyra, because together they are on their way to the battle, an unavoidable journey that will take them even into the world of the dead. Meanwhile Mary Malone, the physicist from Will’s Oxford, travels to a world of strange creatures and makes the discovery that gives the book its title.
The Ending
It is the most ambitious book of the trilogy, full of angels, harpies, tiny Gallivespian spies and a final choice that is among the most moving in modern fantasy. When it appeared it became the first children’s book to win the overall Whitbread Book of the Year award.
Into the Land of the Dead
The heart of the book is Lyra and Will’s journey to the world of the dead. To enter it, Lyra must leave Pantalaimon behind on the shore, a betrayal that both of them feel as a physical wound, and one of the most painful scenes in the trilogy. In the grey land beyond, the ghosts are tormented by harpies, until Lyra discovers that what the harpies really want is true stories about the world of the living. Will cuts a window that lets the dead out, to dissolve joyfully into the atoms of the living world.
Mary Malone and the Mulefa
Running alongside the war is a quieter strand. Mary Malone reaches a world inhabited by the mulefa, gentle creatures who travel on wheels made from giant seed-pods, and who can see Dust. Using lacquer from their trees she builds the amber spyglass of the title, an instrument that lets her see Dust too, and she discovers that it is flowing out of the worlds. Her story, and the tale she eventually tells Lyra and Will about her own first love, become crucial to the ending.
The War Against the Authority
Lord Asriel’s rebellion is aimed at the Authority, the first angel, who has falsely claimed to be the creator and whose power is now exercised by his regent, Metatron. The Church in Lyra’s world, meanwhile, sends an assassin to stop Lyra fulfilling a prophecy that casts her as a new Eve. Pullman’s portrait of the ancient, frail Authority, and of Mrs Coulter’s fierce and ambiguous love for her daughter, are among the trilogy’s boldest strokes.
Praise and Controversy
The trilogy’s open hostility to organised religion drew strong criticism from some Christian commentators, while many readers and critics hailed it as a modern counterpart to Milton. Pullman himself has spoken of replacing the kingdom of heaven with a "republic of heaven" here on earth. The National Theatre staged the whole trilogy in 2003, and the final volume ends with a scene in the Oxford Botanic Garden that many readers have never forgotten.
Reading Tip
Read the three books close together: the final volume pays off threads planted from the very first chapter of Northern Lights.
Details
Original title: The Amber Spyglass. Author: Philip Pullman. Spanish edition I read: El catalejo lacado, Roca Bolsillo, 480 pages. Genre: fantasy, young adult. First published: 2000.
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