Rereading: THE AMBER SPYGLASS by Philip Pullman

Cover art by Eric Rohmann

The third book of Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy came out in 2000, and I bought and read it then. I didn’t have good memories of it, and I recall thinking that if the second book, “The Subtle Knife” was somewhat disappointing, this one was more so, and the first book, “The Golden Compass” was the best of the lot. That opinion changed during this reading, so I’m glad I revisited it.

Lyra, the girl who was the focus of the first book, met Will in the second book, each of them with powerful magic instruments. Lyra has her Golden Compass, which allows her to find out many hidden things and get advice on what to do next, while Will has the Subtle Knife, the most dangerous weapon in all the worlds, and also a way to travel from one world to another. At the beginning of this book, Lyra has been captured by her mother, Mrs. Coulter, who is keeping her in a drugged sleep hidden in a cave in the Himalayas, but she and Lyra are the focus of searches by many groups, including a church armed force, an armed force from her father, Lord Asriel, and Will accompanied by two low-level angels and the mighty bear warrior Iorek, Lyra’s friend. There are also witches searching, and another friend of Lyra’s, Dr. Mary from Will’s Oxford. Many of these groups converge, but Will manages to get Lyra away into another world through a door he cuts with the Sublte Knife. Two tiny warrior spies sent by Lyra’s father stick with them, and soon Lyra and Will make a new plan based on what Lyra has learned in her drugged sleep and from the Golden Compass. It’s a frightening plan: they will find their way into the land of the dead so they can help friends and relatives there.

The plan succeeds, and it’s a harrowing journey perhaps second only to Frodo and Sam’s to Mount Doom in “The Lord of the Rings,” and difficult to read. Fortunately we get other stories about Lord Asriel and his planned war on Heaven, and Dr. Mary’s interesting adventures on another world to give us some relief. All the story threads come together in the climactic battle between Lord Asriel’s and Heaven’s forces. What will happen to the children then?

I liked this much better than in my first read, I think then I found the holy war elements hard to accept, but this time through it all worked for me, and I thought the conclusion moving and satisfying. Highly recommended.

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