The Amber Spyglass

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The final and by far the most thrilling installment in the series, The Amber Spyglass brings the exciting adventures of Lyra and Will to a close. All the side stories, all the chunks of exposition, and all the minute details that you thought had no point coalesce into a gripping climax that ends an epic journey.

As Lyra drifts in an enchanted sleep put on her by her mother a new mission becomes clear: to travel to the land of the dead and apologise to Roger. Meanwhile, in the company of two angels, Will is on his own mission to rescue Lyra and then continue the search for his father. While the two slowly find their way towards each other an epic battle between Heaven and Earth is brewing with Lord Asriel at the helm, but time is short and each side is coming to realise that their success, or failure, depends on the choices of two unique children.

The skirting themes of science vs. religion, the free will of humans, and rebellion that have peppered the preceding books barrels in with its full weight here, as a recognisble battle takes place and overt references to Adam and Eve, right down to ending in a garden, drive the narrative. Rather like The Two Towers and Return of the King the chapters are splintered into the narratives of all the different character groups: Lyra, Will, Lyra and Will, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel, and Mary Malone giving the book a lot of breadth and keeping it infused with a rippling freshness and excitement as no two chapters chronicle the same adventures.

Pullman flexes and shows off his impressive world-building skills; creating captivating creatures, such as the mulefa, and landscapes that are both immersive and inspire this wonderful sense of voyeurism: you would be happy to get lost in some of these worlds.

Image credit: Phillip Pullman.com

The character journeys themselves are strong and he does a wonderful job of showing and not telling just how much the two have changed: through actions, omniscient narration, and a subtle change in their dialogue. While some of the story’s aspects become predictable at the crucial point, the journey that Pullman takes the reader on, along with his characters, is wholly immersive and exciting. He even manages to redeem some formerly nasty characters and change our minds about them: a wonderful trick that comes from telling multiple stories away from Lyra and Will. 

It’s the perfect ending to an exciting fantasy series that might have started out a little slow, but quickly found its legs and began to run. I am back to feeling the way that I did when I first read it as a child: thrilled, buzzing, and satisfied right to the last page.

The Amber Spyglass is the final book in Phillip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. It was written in 2000, published by Scholastic in 2001, and won the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year award.