His Dark Materials III: The Amber Spyglass - Philip Pullman > Reviews > The Dark is Rising

Author's product rating:   

Would you listen to it again?	Yes
Story	Good
Characters	Satisfactory
Listenability	Once you start it, you won't be able to switch it off!

Advantages:	Epic, Intelligent, Shows a tremedous imagination at work
Disadvantages:	Poor pacing, Not as good as the earlier volumes

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Okay I know I’m doing this in the wrong order, but I’ll have to re-read ‘Northern Lights’ and ‘The Subtle Knife’ before I can give them a fair hearing. ‘The Amber Spyglass’ on the other hand is still fresh in my mind having been one of my holiday reads (yes I did lug the huge hardback copy down to the beach, more fool me I guess). In fact this book was a bit of a guilty pleasure as I had promised myself I would wait for the paperback edition, however, I clearly have no will power and the £3 off at Waterstones was more then enough to persuade me that I had to buy it.

For the uninitiated ‘The Amber Spyglass’ is the concluding volume of Philip Pullman’s epic ‘His Dark Materials’ trilogy. I was first alerted to the existence of these books by some rave reviews proclaiming them to be better then Harry Potter. Being a big fan of J.K Rowling’s infamous creation I picked up the first two books and devoured them both in a few days. Comparing the two series is a fruitless exercise, Pullman does not write with the same knowing wit or verve as Rowling but he does paint his picture on a far more epic canvas. Pullman’s books are more in the tradition of modern quest fantasy than Rowling’s subtle genre manipulation but no less worthy for it. I like them both so enough of the comparison already.

Now imagine there are an infinite number of worlds that exist in parallel to this one. Some are only subtly different, others unrecognisable to our own. This is hardly an original idea, it’s been a staple of science fiction for at least the last twenty years, however, its rarely been realised with the panache that is demonstrated here. Lyra, a young orphan lives in Oxford but a very different Oxford to our own. An England where the Church is all powerful and has powers which would have made the Spanish Inquisition jealous. Where scientists are referred to as Experimental Theologians and executed if their ‘heresies’ challenge the status quo. Where witches and armoured bears walk the desolate north and priests and scholars use a strange compass like device, called an alethiometer, to predict the future. In this world all humans have a constant companion, an extension of their soul called a daemon.

A discovery of a strange invisible material, know as ‘Dust’ is causing problems for the church. An investigation by one of its bodies is leading to disappearances of children and hideous experiments being carried out. Meanwhile a renegade peer, Lord Asriel has also discovered ‘Dust’ and has his own agenda. There is also an ancient witches prophecy which foretells a second Eve. Lyra is plunged into this mess when her friend Roger becomes one of kidnapped children and she embarks on a quest to find them, equipped with an alethiometer which she can mysteriously read by intuition. Her journey takes her to the north and beyond into another world.

Will is on the run. He’s not sure who from but they’re after him and his mother. Will lives in our world and has been running all his life, he’s not sure why but it may concern his missing father. When he accidentally kills one of the men pursuing him Will begins a sequence of events which throw him in another world.

That world is C’ittagazze, an empty shell of a place, the adult population decimated by terrifying spirits called Spectres who devour the very soul of their prey. Only children are immune and play in the haunted streets of the ghostly cities. Three hundred years ago one of the guilds created a knife so sharp it can cut through the very fabric of reality and allow the bearer to travel between the worlds. Lyra and Will discover each other in C’ittagazze and the secret of the Subtle Knife which Will becomes the unwilling owner of. From here on in things start become complex as the reader discovers the secret of ‘Dust’ and the audacious plan of Lord Asriel, quite simply to kill God.

The third volume opens with Lyra captured and Will on a desperate quest to free her and follow his destiny as the bearer of the Knife. Meanwhile the importance of Lyra becomes clear as she unwittingly begins to fulfil the prophecy of the witches whilst the Church makes increasingly spectacular attempts to stop her. Meanwhile an epic battle is brewing between the forces heaven lead by ‘the Regent’, Metranon and those of Lord Asriel in attempt to create a ‘Republic of Heaven’ (!?) and Dr Mary Malone finds herself in an unrecognisable world waiting to play ‘the Snake’.

Pullman’s writing is compelling as is his persuasive characterisation. Lyra is well portrayed as the feisty yet still very childish girl on which much of the story turns. Also particularly well realised throughout the series is the bear king Iorek Brynison, notably alien and intriguing, the scene where he visits the body of his fallen friend and after paying his respects eats the body is fantastically drawn and gives an insight into his mix of beast and intelligence. The imagination displayed throughout is equally excellent, there is clearly a vast back story here which Pullman carefully unravels piece by piece whilst the alien cultures of the Muefla and the short lived Gallivespians (who have clear hints of Guliver’s Liliputians) are well explored. Pullman’s cleverest idea is the concept of the daemons, the bond between them and their human counterparts is so loving created it becomes oddly natural to the extent that the reader will shudder when the Lyra becomes separated from her’s mid way through.

Pullman’s playfulness with religious matters has attracted some substantial criticism, something I did find hard to comprehend to begin with. This after all is a fictional story and one which has created one of the finest alternate theologies since Anne Rices’s ‘Memnoch the Devil’. Particularly novel is the anthropological explanation for the Eve myth, equating ‘Dust’ with the apple of the biblical story and knowledge with consciousness, thus carrying with it the undertones that God didn’t want humanity to become conscious. The idea the God has abdicated his position to a regent isn’t a new one either, it was somewhat better realised in the final books of Piers Anthony’s Incarnations of Immortality saga. However, the few pops at organised religion could perhaps be termed a little insulting; the ‘Big Brother’ role of the Church in Lyra’s world (although this is only really a distorted reflection of the Papal power of the Middle Ages) and the concept of storing up penance in order to commit a sin free murder is perhaps a little cruel. Still I can understand those who are religiously minded finding these books a little unsuitable for children, a complaint against Harry Potter which is totally beyond me.

Indeed Pullman with this book seems to have forgotten his original audience. This book is extremely dark and bleak. Whilst the subtleties of the back story and the overarching plot will be largely lost on his younger readers the more simplistic adventure story which lies beneath is inferior to the preceding books. The hints of sexuality, notably of Mrs Coulter and the growing tension between Will and Lyra also seem out of place in a children’s book. Pullman makes his two main characters grow up startlingly quickly, although Will always seemed extremely mature for a fairly young age the transformation in Lyra is executed with almost unseemly haste in order to pull of the final dénouement. Whilst ‘Northern Lights’ and ‘The Subtle Knife’ have the same brilliance of Potter in appealing on a number of levels to a variety of age ranges I suspect younger readers will not appreciate the conclusions this final book brings.

The book is also poorly structured compared to the first two volumes. Although it begins with a rocket, the momentum seems to peter out toward the final third and the tragic ending felt somewhat unsatisfying to my mind. Part of the problem I suspect is the slow way Pullman has revealed his story, when all the pieces are slotted into place the end result is not quite as clever as I expected. The brewing battle between the forces of Asriel and heaven is spirited past the reader in the course of less then a chapter and never completely resolved. The back story of the renegade angels is also left disappointingly unexplored and the increasingly pantomime attempts of the Church to kill Lyra throughout the book are unfitting and lacking tension or imagination.

These flaws are partly nit-picking on my part, ‘The Amber Spyglass’ is largely as riveting a read as the previous episodes and almost as enjoyable. Pullman is an excellent writer and duly ties up his loose ends as well as introducing enough new ideas to keep the reader gripped. Although the ending disappoints, to my mind at any rate, I was glad that Pullman hadn’t succumbed to the urge to make everything happy ever after. Tears did prick my eyes at one point and the reader should bare in mind that Pullman has showed no aversion to killing off central characters earlier in the saga. My main criticism is for a series once aimed at children this final chapter is far too adult in tone and theme. In conclusion ‘The Amber Spyglass’ is an enjoyable enough read but one that suffers in comparison with the earlier books, which I would recommend heartily. Having said that it is still excellent epic fantasy albeit masquerading as children’s fiction. Of course once you’ve finished those you will want to read the final book but I wouldn’t follow my example and buy it in hardback (it weighs the suitcase down apart from anything else).