Invested in this series, I expected more from The Amber Spyglass. The creative storytelling elements in the first two books glued together the importance of the golden compass and the subtle knife cementing their crucial significance. Although the amber spyglass was explained in this story, it didn't add to the plot. I mean you have a knife that can cut into worlds and a compass that can tell truth and then you have the amber spyglass which can see dust understood philosophically as some sort of Brahman/Atman concept perhaps without the Brahman because of course in these books "God is Dead" or never existed at all and anything, not just the church, associated with this is evil. I didn't understand why the church was evil - exactly.
I think Pullman wanted us to tap into our prior knowledge here that extended outside of this book tapping into horrific events like The Salem Witch Trials. With all of his blossoming promises to address how religion is used more like a sword than a warm blanket, he fell short. In these books, you have to accept religion is bad without really ever understanding why. I mean these people don't even go to church, but somehow the church chains them. With that said, the idea of dust is a fantastic one, but it was not explained fully. Pullman goes off on the Mulefa, some weird bug creatures without dust. This part of the narrative bored me to tears and I found myself skimming. He also spent quite a bit of time explaining why Mary (the snake temptress) left the nunnery. This story reasoned around a fruit (aka the apple) and an Italian guy. What?
Pullman set up some pretty nifty symbolism in this story, and really whether he likes the Bible or not - its much better story telling. How can you mess up when you have stories like that to spin off? Well, Pullman did. For example, Lyra, a feisty brave young woman turns into a whimpering rib of Will, the giant man in this. I like Margaret Atwood's version of Eve much better in Quattrocento, at least here the importance of knowledge is focused on rather than an outpouring of hatred for Christianity. These books were ripe with possibilities and Pullman could have addressed The Garden of Eden/original sin story alongside the corrupt folks often hiding behind the church - but, alas he did not. He was too busy hating alongside Mary, the former nun and the Mulefa. Read at your own peril.
