Laurabelle's Blog

[This is my first reading-journal entry. Instead of writing another review for this book/trilogy, I figured I'd post the one I've already written. I'll keep posting these if I think they're interesting.]

Title:

The Amber Spyglass

Author:

Philip Pullman

Genre:

Chapter book

Audience:

11 years and up

Review:

The Amber Spyglass is the last book in Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials. I read the whole trilogy but chose to review the last one because it gives me the opportunity to comment on the whole trilogy rather than just one book. Indeed, I would find it very hard to consider any one of these books as separate from its companion volumes, even though it is now even harder for me to confine my ramblings to a couple of paragraphs.

Even though I initially found it hard to get into the first volume of the trilogy, I have ironically come to love it for the same reason as my initial unenthusiasm. The female main character, Lyra, is a young hellion with whom I seemed to have nothing in common and with whom I therefore did not identify. I kept reading because the book had been so well recommended, and Pullman's brilliant characterization soon made me glad of my persistence. A boy and a girl are the heroes, but there are no absolute villains. People do the wrong thing for the right reasons, or the right thing for the wrong reasons, and everyone's reasons are different. Every character is round.

It is hard for me to assign this trilogy to a certain audience, because it can be read on so many levels. The action is straightforward enough for a youngster to read it as an action story, but the symbolism behind that action is complex enough for a theologian. A ten-year-old sees Will and Lyra saving the world, but I see the Garden of Eden.

Comparison:

The Amber Spyglass is a book whose racing plot is matched and even overshadowed by its philosophical and theological implications. The two reviews I read, one from Booklist and the other from Horn Book, chose to cover different balances of plot and philosophy.

Ilene Cooper's review in Booklist mentions the theological aspect but focuses mainly on the plot and on the controversial aspects of the book. The highlight of the article is a short interview with Philip Pullman in which he says, about the religious controversy which will arise around the book, Well, I should be interested to see what happens. I'm very grateful to J. K. Rowling for deflecting everyone's attention. In my experience, people who object to books usually have not read the books; they've read about the books and what others say is in them. In my opinion, Cooper's focus on controversy is more likely to provoke it than otherwise.

In contrast, Maguire encourages readers to consider the implications of the book's radical theology with a philosophical eye. Whether they believe it or not, they can try out new ideas without letting their own convictions come under attack. So put another log on the fire and draw your chairs closer and tell me, Maguire invites. ...Is there a creator of all things?

Cooper, Ilene. Darkness visible—Philip Pullman's Amber Spyglass. Booklist 97 (2000): 354-355.

Maguire, Gregory. The Amber Spyglass. Horn Book 76 (2000): 735-738.