Amber Spyglass, The

Inhoud

Along with the return of Lyra, Will, Mrs. Coulter, Lord Asriel, Dr. Mary Malone, and Iorek Byrnison the armored bear, come a host of new characters: the Mulefa, mysterious wheeled creatures with the power to see Dust; Gallivespian Lord Roke, a hand-high spymaster to Lord Asriel; and Metatron, a fierce and mighty angel. So, too, come startling revelations: the painful price Lyra must pay to walk through the land of the dead, the haunting power of Dr. Malone's amber spyglass, and the names of who will live--and who will die--for love. And all the while, war rages with the Kingdom of Heaven, a brutal battle that--in its shocking outcome--will uncover the secret of Dust. Philip Pullman deftly brings the cliff-hangers and mysteries of His Dark Materials to an earthshattering conclusion--and confirms his fantasy trilogy as an undoubted and enduring classic.

Bespreking

Weak ending to an otherwise excellent trilogy

The Amber Spyglass is the long-awaited conclusion to Philip Pullman's trilogy, His Dark Materials. The Story continues with Lyra Belaqua who is on a quest to find forgiveness for the death of her friend Roger. Lyra gets assistance of Will Parry, keeper of the Subtle Knife, who can cut doors to other worlds. But before they can start their quest, Lyra has to get released from the grasp of her mother, Mrs. Coulter, who keeps her daughter in a drug-induced sleep. Maybe the armored bear Iorek Byrnison will arrive on time to help her? In the meantime Dr. Mary Malone, the scientist that helped Lyra in search of the Dust, has found one of Will's windows to a land where small-horned, elephant-like creatures called Mulefa ride on wheels made of seed pods. Unbeknownst to her, she on track of something that might save the children. and maybe the Universe.

Where the previous two episodes of His Dark Materials, were excelling in creating a magnificent Universe with strong storylines, this final book had the task of concluding the trilogy. A tremendous task, because the story so far had quite a few loose ends that needed weaving together. Maybe this assignment was underestimated by the author, because the story gets very confusion from the point where Lyra and Will find each other again. New worlds are introduced and theories on what Dust is all about are explained, but the main drive of the story seems to get to the background. It is as if the trilogy suddenly becomes more of an epic tale, than a fantastic adventure. More than once I was completely lost and had to browse back a few pages to get back into the story.

The story so far had quite some potential, but the author did not really succeed in bringing it all on paper. Maybe four books instead of three would have given the story more room to breath.