Pullman, Philip. 2000. The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book III). New York: Knopf. Reviewed 11 November 2000
First, ignore the "new" nonsense. It's only a new development to those who've somehow managed to avoid any reference whatsoever to either Pullman's acknowledged sources (principally William Blake and Milton's Paradise Lost or any of the more-recent ruminations on this theme (such as Harlan Ellison's masterful "The Deathbird" from his collection Deathbird Stories or the somewhat obscure and very much underrated 1970 Genesis album Trespass). Then there are such other examples as Voltaire. The key question, though, is not whether Yahweh is (or is not) the Prince of Lies; it is whether Yahweh is known to us as such. That how Yahweh is known to us depends at least as much upon the actions and attitudes of adherants as upon the language of the attributed texts is not just a rejoinder to the fundamentalists; it is central to the novel's values.
The Amber Spyglass completes this tale. We see battles of angels built upon Milton's vision, assisted (so to speak) by men (and others). We see the tempter in the Garden. Or do we? For this is the prophecy about Lyra that so disturbed the Church hierarchy: that a specific person would tempt her, and that she would make a choice that resulted in the ruin of the hierarchy (and eventual triumph of the angels who had been cast out of heaven over the current tenants to whom the hierarchy owed allegiance). However, the book remains very vague about exactly what the temptation wasalthough there is a scene in which Lyra gives Will an apple, Mary (the supposed tempter) has nothing to do with Lyra finding that apple, and any "choice" surrounding that incident is almost an accident; the most important choices Lyra makes are in the world of the dead and well after the Fall of the Authority. Or is the temptation the thought of learning that Mary plants in Lyra? If so, it is off-stage, and seems unlikely to be the "choice" of the prophecy. I suspect that the whole issue of "fated choice" is very much like Shakespeare's famous "Exit, pursued by a bear": a device to force the characters, in their own world, to take action. If there is a weakness in these books, it is in the unremitting evil of everyone in the Church's heirarchy. And it's not a subtle evil, either; it is very much one of ends justifying means, with increase in personal power the most appropriate ends. This even extends beyond the human members of the heirarchy to the angel just below the Authority, who is named as Enoch (which itself bears considerable thought). They are not cardboard characters as such, but they are nonetheless still shallower than they should be. Two marketing issues remain, one good, one bad. The cover designs and paintings are unusually mature for speculative fiction aimed at any age-group. Too often, cover paintings look like 1970ish Archie transported to a speculative fiction context, with perhaps the only consistent exceptions being Michael Whelan and Bob Eggleton. The full but natural pallette, the soft yet defined edges, and the complex albeit spare scenes are miles beyond the usual garbage. On the other hand, the marketing dorks in this country should learn something from their British counterparts that they clearly have not learned even after having had Harry Potter shoved down their throats: restricting complex books to particular marketing categories due to the age of the protagonists is a serious mistake. Although YA readerssupposedly 12 to 16, but in reality 9 or 10 to 13 or 14would certainly enjoy His Dark Materials, they will do so on the "cool battle" or "cool adventure" level and miss most of the novel's meaning and joy. Although, if it gets them reading Paradise Lost and Paradise Regained, that's not entirely a bad thing. Overall rating: |
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