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A review by dullshimmer
The Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman
3.0
Having concluded the final book of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, I can't help but feel a bit mixed. One one hand I'm relieved since I have never really enjoyed the series that much. They aren't terrible books, but they all wound up being around average for me. On the other hand I'm a bit disappointed, because the books had so much promise, but wound up falling short of that potential.
I think that the most positive aspects of this whole series are the imaginative idea that Pullman develops. The ideas of daemons, creatures like the mulefa, dust, the subtle knife, witches, and armor wearing talking bears are all really cool ideas. I recognize this and generally did enjoy his imaginative aspects of his book.
Where I felt that there was more of this struggle was in the plot itself. Fitting all these imaginative ideas in a way that makes sense and isn't full of continually convenient circumstances is a difficult thing to accomplish, and I don't feel that Pullman succeeded. While exploring the idea of the mulefa, creatures who evolved quite differently than our own world was somewhat interesting, it was ill fitting with the rest of the book. It was like the putting the mulefa in the story was more important than the story itself.
Another big hit to the story was the theological side of things. I get that Pullman isn't the biggest fan of religion, and even as a person who would be considered religious, I understand there is plenty to critique. However, I just felt that his use of religious ideas and names just didn't help his story any. The idea of Lyra as another Eve just doesn't work that great, at least not the way Pullman goes about it. Pullman seems to think that religion is about denying the physical, which includes physical love, and about keeping people away from pursuing wisdom and knowledge. Now this something some Christians have done before, but some have also been quite okay with the physical and with pursing wisdom and knowledge too. In particular by using romantic, physical love as the cause of the "fall" just doesn't really square with what the fall was about.
Not to mention that for all the fanfare there is about Lyra being tempted and falling, when it actually happens there is really no mention of it happening other than Lyra's eyes being opened (which would be an allusion to how Adam and Eve's eyes were opened after eating the fruit). Of course we also aren't even given an explanation on why there is a second Eve other than some random prophecy that is only mentioned briefly a few times. It just didn't really help the story at all for me.
Also for all the talk of physical being better than spiritual beings in the book, the ending is finally wrapped up not by the power of the physical beings, but by the angels due to a whole lot of information we're given at the end. It's a bit of a weird note to end on, but I guess that was the only way to wrap it up and make a mostly unhappy ending stick.
Overall, I guess The Amber Spyglass and the whole His Dark Materials series as a whole just felt so conflicted. Religion is bad and not even true, but the book is also full of religious names (like Lyra being Eve) and creatures like angels and dust. Physical beings are stronger and better than spiritual, but the cleaning up everything at the end is really brought about by the spiritual beings. Physical love is great, but we're not really going to let anyone enjoy it in the books, I mean if you think about it the couples are either not on good terms or not actually together even if they do love each other. These conflicts just make for an unsatisfying series of books that fail to live up to their potential.
I think that the most positive aspects of this whole series are the imaginative idea that Pullman develops. The ideas of daemons, creatures like the mulefa, dust, the subtle knife, witches, and armor wearing talking bears are all really cool ideas. I recognize this and generally did enjoy his imaginative aspects of his book.
Where I felt that there was more of this struggle was in the plot itself. Fitting all these imaginative ideas in a way that makes sense and isn't full of continually convenient circumstances is a difficult thing to accomplish, and I don't feel that Pullman succeeded. While exploring the idea of the mulefa, creatures who evolved quite differently than our own world was somewhat interesting, it was ill fitting with the rest of the book. It was like the putting the mulefa in the story was more important than the story itself.
Another big hit to the story was the theological side of things. I get that Pullman isn't the biggest fan of religion, and even as a person who would be considered religious, I understand there is plenty to critique. However, I just felt that his use of religious ideas and names just didn't help his story any. The idea of Lyra as another Eve just doesn't work that great, at least not the way Pullman goes about it. Pullman seems to think that religion is about denying the physical, which includes physical love, and about keeping people away from pursuing wisdom and knowledge. Now this something some Christians have done before, but some have also been quite okay with the physical and with pursing wisdom and knowledge too. In particular by using romantic, physical love as the cause of the "fall" just doesn't really square with what the fall was about.
Not to mention that for all the fanfare there is about Lyra being tempted and falling, when it actually happens there is really no mention of it happening other than Lyra's eyes being opened (which would be an allusion to how Adam and Eve's eyes were opened after eating the fruit). Of course we also aren't even given an explanation on why there is a second Eve other than some random prophecy that is only mentioned briefly a few times. It just didn't really help the story at all for me.
Also for all the talk of physical being better than spiritual beings in the book, the ending is finally wrapped up not by the power of the physical beings, but by the angels due to a whole lot of information we're given at the end. It's a bit of a weird note to end on, but I guess that was the only way to wrap it up and make a mostly unhappy ending stick.
Overall, I guess The Amber Spyglass and the whole His Dark Materials series as a whole just felt so conflicted. Religion is bad and not even true, but the book is also full of religious names (like Lyra being Eve) and creatures like angels and dust. Physical beings are stronger and better than spiritual, but the cleaning up everything at the end is really brought about by the spiritual beings. Physical love is great, but we're not really going to let anyone enjoy it in the books, I mean if you think about it the couples are either not on good terms or not actually together even if they do love each other. These conflicts just make for an unsatisfying series of books that fail to live up to their potential.