What the…?
I finished „The Amber Spyglass“ yesterday. For those of you who don’t know that book, it’s the third (and last) part of the „His Dark Materials“ series by Philip Pullman.
And it’s a desaster.
For one thing, if you asked me why it’s called „His Dark Materials“ I couldn’t possibly give you the answer. Because I still don’t know. I don’t know who „He“ is, nor why they’re dark and I can only guess that the materials are that which is called Dust, sraf, Shadows and possibly something else in the book. Just don’t ask me.
Let me also say that I loved the first book, liked the second book a lot (although I had the impression that the story was starting to fall apart somewhere in the second book) and I expected at least something remotely average (and possibly good) from the third.
There are a few things that bug me the most about the third book, so here we go.
For one thing, the author doesn’t care about being, you know, clear. It’s all so mystical and strange and not explainable. I have no problem with mystical and strange, but I like to have a proper explanation about WHAT’S GOING ON every once in a while. Because it helps and I believe that it’s also only fair to your readers. It’s all so confusing.
Then I don’t have a problem with an author weaving in his religious worldview into a book. I know (at least that’s what I read) that the Narnia books contain a lot of pretty old-fashioned Christian ideology and it’s okay. But it just doesn’t work here. Mostly because the author just focuses on what ideas he doesn’t approve of instead of actually telling what he believes in. It’s a complete mess. So, God is dead, huh? Okay, fine. But then I have a few questions: Who was God, actually? The fragile old creature who dissolved into air on that one page? And who exactly was fighting then? And why? And what role did Metatron have? And were all the Angels on one side or were they divided? And why?
And what was it all about that freaking Dust? And why was it flowing away? And was it flowing away only in that one world or in every world? And why was it bad? And what did it mean? And why did it stop flowing away? I guess I know why, but if it was just because of that (I won’t include spoilers here)… THE HELL? WHY?
I honestly can’t say if I’m too stupid for that book or if I’m actually too clever. All I can say that I felt it was full of plot holes, lacking a lot of explanations and I got the overall thinking the author himself didn’t actually know what he should do about the story he had begun. I still don’t know why Lyra was supposed to be that damned important. Up to when they were in the land of the dead she actually did things that seemed important and brave, but that was it. Nothing she did later on seemed especially important to me. She was mending nets and cuddling with her boyfriend, for Pete’s sake.
Another thing and then I’ll stop ranting. Promise. There were a lot of moments in the book where it felt like the author just randomly decided what a creature was capable of or not. And there’s a mini-spoiler here: When the dead left the land of the dead through the hole that Will’s knife had cut, they disappeared into the air. Lee Scoresby and Will’s father nevertheless decided they weren’t ready yet and needed to fight a bit more. Did I just miss something here or why didn’t they disappear when they were fighting alongside Lyra and Will? Didn’t that fight take place in another world as well? There were other moments like this that just seemed to lack of logic or at least consistency. It’s fine to make up all these weird creatures, but please give me an idea about what they can do and what they can’t and friggin‘ STICK TO IT. Because I don’t like it when every scene is resolved by a strange Deus Ex Machina just because you decided that it should be so.
Anyway, the first two books were good. Really. Especially the first one. Just know that when you read them there’s nearly no way not to read the third book, because that’s where the story ends and at least some of the questions are answered (although as you might have noticed not to my satisfaction).
I also have read a lot of praises for the third book, so once more tastes can vary and I guess it’s good that they do. I just didn’t like it. I thought it was confusing and inconsistent and just plain chaotic. The story never seemed to go anywhere. So there.
Now decide for your own. Or tell me what you think. Maybe I was just too stupid to understand this book, but I honestly doubt that.