Review of The Amber Spyglass

	The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman 560pp (Hardcover) My Rating: 7/10 Amazon Rating: 4/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.17/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.09/5

The Amber Spyglass is the third book in the His Dark Materials series. (I was going to say it was also the final book, but apparently Philip Pullman is writing a fourth book in the series called The Book of Dust.) While it was still a good book that I did not regret reading, I felt it was the weakest book in the series. There were many interesting ideas in this book, but the end just did not live up to my expectations. It was one of those books that had the potential to be excellent, but I put it down after reading the last sentence feeling like it should have been so much better than it was.

The story picks up where The Subtle Knife left off. After snatching Lyra, Mrs. Coulter hides her in the mountains and keeps her in a deep sleep. Will and Ama, a girl who brought food and supplies to Mrs. Coulter, sneak into the cave where Lyra is being kept and wake her from the drug-induced sleep. During her sleep, Lyra dreamed of speaking to Roger in the Land of the Dead and she and Will decide to go to this land.

Meanwhile, Mary Malone settles for a time in a world inhabited by beings called mulefa. The mulefa appear to be animals at first, but in fact are intelligent. Mary learns to communicate with the mulefa, and they ask for her help in saving a type of tree they are very dependent upon. While in this world, Mary constructs a spyglass that allows her to see Dust.

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This book could have, in my opinion, been a bit shorter. The beginning was slow and hard to get into, parts of the middle dragged, and there was a lot more description in this book than the previous two. Description does not always bother me, but in this case it did because the series was about plot and action and all the exposition did little to advance the plot or enhance the story. The prose was well-written, but sometimes fewer words would have made the book flow a lot better.

The characters were better developed than in the previous books since some of the lines between good and evil were a bit blurrier here. However, the characters (other than Lyra) did seem fairly generic and lacking in distinct personality traits. Some of the changes in character were rushed and not very convincing. This is not surprising to me, since young adult novels generally focus more on plot and not as much on character development, but I always find a lack of good characterization disappointing.

This book continued to put a lot of emphasis on the evils of organized religion, particularly Catholicism. The way religion was woven into the storyline was a very fascinating idea with a lot of potential, but in the end, a lot of the themes were emphasized more than the story. The prophecies mentioned earlier in the book or series ended up having very anticlimactic conclusions, particularly the parallel between events in this book and the fall of Adam and Eve. The ending did not seem particularly satisfying or fitting to me.

Although I found this book to be a bit disappointing, I still enjoyed it and found it worth my time. The major problem I had with this book was that it had so much potential to be outstanding, but ultimately, it was merely a good book and nothing exceptional.

7/10

The Subtle Knife

	The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman 368pp (Hardcover) My Rating: 7.5/10 Amazon Rating: 3/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.23/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.18/5

The Subtle Knife is the second book in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman and continues the story begun in The Golden Compass. The series is considered young adult fantasy, although it certainly has some themes that would be better appreciated and understood by adult readers. While The Golden Compass was interesting and worth reading, I did not find it to be anything exceptional, although I probably would have been enthralled by it had I read it as a child. I thought The Subtle Knife was a more engaging, better written and plotted story than The Golden Compass and I look forward to reading the concluding volume of the series.

The Subtle Knife continues the story of Lyra and introduces a new character, a child named Will who befriends Lyra. The story actually begins with Will, which I found annoying at first since I wanted to know more about what happened to Lyra, particularly since the previous book had ended on a very promising note. However, I ended up really enjoying Will's character and the development of his friendship with Lyra.

Will is a child from our world who has had to grow up quickly since his mother has issues with paranoia and obsessive compulsiveness. Afraid that his mother will be taken away from him if anyone finds out what she is really like, Will does not make friends and tries to protect her. When Will finds that some suspicious men have been asking questions at his home, he is forced to flee to another dimension. He finds the town he is in abandoned except for Lyra and Pantalaimon, who have also wandered into this world. At first, Lyra is terrified of Will since he has no daemon, but she soon realizes that he does have a daemon after all even though it is not visible.

Will and Lyra soon find the adults have fled the town they are currently in because of the Specters, an apparition that leaves adults still and lifeless. Children cannot see the Specters and the Specters do not bother children, so there are many children still in this town. Will ends up being chosen as the bearer of a knife the Specters fear. This knife has some unusual powers, but nobody, even the creators of the knife, know how powerful it is except for one man who must find the bearer of this knife to tell him what he must do.

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As is often the case with young adult books, this story is very plot-driven, although I felt it did a better job of developing the characters than the first book did. There was no great depth of characterization in this book, but the characters seemed less flat and there were a few key moments that brought out just what type of person they were. Characters tend to very clearly fall into a "good" or "evil" category, with one or two exceptions. I'll be interested in seeing what Pullman does with some of these characters in the final volume of the trilogy.

This book was shorter than The Golden Compass, but I thought this was a good choice. The plot moved along very well with fewer words and I thought the pacing of the story was well done. There was rarely a dull moment; in fact, the only slow part I can recall was in the beginning when I was trying to figure out what this new guy Will was doing there.

The Christian religion is the backdrop for a lot of the mythology in the story and I think Pullman develops and expands on these religious themes in a very compelling way. Christians, particularly Catholics, may find some of these themes offensive. The Catholic Church is featured in these books in a rather unfavorable light (as is not uncommon with speculative fiction books).

The Subtle Knife is an entertaining, easy to read story containing some insight into religion and the differences between innocence and experience. It is a light book with some not-so-light themes, perfect for when you are in the mood for a book that is short and fun yet not complete fluff.

7.5/10

The Golden Compass

	The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman 399pp (Paperback) My Rating: 7/10 Amazon Rating: 4.5/5 LibraryThing Rating: 4.3/5 Goodreads Rating: 4.25/5

The Golden Compass (known as Northern Lights in the UK and everywhere other than the U.S. from the sounds of it) is the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I've had the entire trilogy for a few years now but just hadn't read it for some reason (well, mainly because it takes less time to buy new books than it does to read them). Since The Golden Compass movie is coming out this December, I decided I had better hurry up and read it so the movie doesn't spoil the ending for me.

Lyra, a young girl living at Jordan College in Oxford, hides in the master's room one night just in time to see him attempt to poison her uncle, Lord Asriel. Lyra's intervention saves Lord Asriel, who then tells Lyra to watch the master from her hiding place in the wardrobe during a meeting with him and the other scholars at the university. At this meeting, Lyra is intrigued by what she hears about Dust and severed children but cannot entirely understand what the adults are discussing.

Soon after this, a beautiful and charming young woman named Mrs. Coulter comes to the university to take Lyra away with her. Early in the morning before she is to leave, Lyra is awakened and summoned to the master's room. He gives her a device resembling a compass known as an alethiometer and tells her it measures the truth. The master warns Lyra not to let Mrs. Coulter know about his gift to her and their conversation is cut short before he gets to finish what he was going to tell her about Lord Asriel.

Lyra finds that Mrs. Coulter is not as warm and pleasant as she initially seemed, escapes from her, and is caught up in adventures with gyptians, armored bears, and witches on a quest to save Lord Asriel. Her mastery of the alethiometer allows her to play an important role in fate and she is destined to fulfill an old prophecy.

The world in the story is a parallel universe in which a defining characteristic of humans is that they are linked to a daemon, an animal who must stay near the human or both will suffer. The daemon is a constant companion that feels the emotions of the human. Adults have specific animals as their daemons, but children's daemons are flexible and can take many forms until the child reaches puberty.

This story is marketed for young adults, so it is a fairly short, fun book that is very plot-oriented. Characterization is flat and the dialogue is nothing impressive, but it seemed like standard young adult book characterization and dialogue. As is often the case with young adult books, the world itself seemed more imaginative than a lot of adult fantasy. It had some of the same fantasy themes but written in a less regurgitated standard fantasy way.

The Golden Compass is an enjoyable tale of a child and her daemon companion who are fated to change the world. This is a light read and nothing spectacular, but it is very good for young adult literature. The ending indicates that the future books may have some deeper themes more appealing to adult readers.

7/10