BIBLIOGRAPHIC DETAILS
(Print: ©2000; 9780375846731 Random House Children’s Books)
(Digital: Yes, 9780375890031).
*Audio: ©9/23/2003; 978-0739345054; Penguin Random House Audio Publishing Group; Duration 15:53:42; 12 parts; unabridged
(Film: The first book of the series, The Golden Compass (AKA, The Northern Lights), was made into a movie, The Golden Compass, with Nicole Kidman. This one didn’t make it into production—there are a few theories about why. HOWEVER, a television series was created and this one will be available this month (11/2021) on the BBC.)

CHARACTERS: (Not comprehensive)
Lyra [Silvertongue] Belacqua – child on a quest
Pantalaimon – Lyra’s daemon
Will Parry – child on a quest – friend of Lyra
Lord Asriel – Rebel against the Authority / Lyra’s father
Serafina Pekkala – a witch
Lee Scoresby – an aeronaut
John Parry—Will’s Father
Professor Grumman (sp?) – A shaman
Stanislaus Grumman – a shaman
Marissa Coulter – Lyra’s mother.
Balthamos – an angel
Baruch – an angel
Metatron – an archangel
Lord Roke – representative from the Magisterium
Chevalier Tialys – a spy for Lord Roke
Lady Salmakia – a spy for Lord Roke
Mary Malone – a former Oxford Physicist
Iorek Byrnison – a warrior bear

SERIES: His Dark Materials Book 3

SUMMARY/ EVALUATION:
I’d listened to “The Golden Compass” (AKA, “The Northern Lights”) years ago, and couldn’t find the sequels. When I saw a print copy of Book 2 in a bookstore, it reminded me I had never completed the series so I procured Book 2, and now this book (3) from Overdrive in audio format.
Among other things this is Sir Pullman’s re-casting of the conventional (miss-) assessment of the Biblical account of Adam and Eve.
A young reader recently reminded me that it’s nice to have the print book, even if you listen to the audio, because the versions differ. As a librarian, I do know this, but often forget to consider it. The presentation of the print—the art of the fonts, the spaces and lines between the text to delineate time passages, and the emphasis of italics and insets alone can provide added depth to one’s understanding—not to mention the illustrations. Even the digital version can often vary from the print, as is apparent with the version of this book I found in Overdrive which does not include the introduction nor the preface. Amazon’s “Look inside” reveals that there is an introduction but does not include it. And Wikipedia hints that illustrations in the print are provided by the author. I will have to seek out the print version to spy these treasures I have missed in the audio. BUT, I would never go so far as to say the audio is inferior for those reasons! Sir Pullman is also the primary narrator of this book, and narrates splendidly! Other narrators join him, making the presentation an enthralling dramatic experience.
In the preface, seen via Amazon’s “Look Inside”, Sir Pullman speaks of his writing process, which sounds very much like what I believe to be J.K. Rowling’s process, of letting the book write itself without excessive planning. Some writers, he tells us, begin with a theme, and then create characters and a story to express it, whereas with him, he believes a theme does not lead a good story, but rather emerges during its writing –it is something strongly felt by the author that cannot help but emerge. Once it does, he says, the author will probably reshape some of the story to best express it. This trilogy took him 7 years to write.
According to Wikipedia, “The Amber Spyglass won critical acclaim and became the first children's book to win the Whitbread Book of the Year. It also won the British Book Awards, Children's book of the year, American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults, Parents' Choice Good Book Award, Horn Book Fanfare Honor Book, New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age and ABC Children's Booksellers' Choice, and became a New York Times Bestseller.
In 2019, it was ranked sixth in The Guardian's list of the 100 best books since 2000.[8”

My only complaint about the story, is that I was often confused about who was on which side—the magisterium side or Lord Asriel’s—especially the duplicitous Mrs. Coulter whose every word was untrustworthy.

QUOTATIONS: William Blake’s “America: A Prophecy”; Rainer Maria Rilke’s “The Third Elegy”; Emily Dickinson; John Milton's Paradise Lost; John Ashbery’s “The Ecclesiast”

AUTHOR:
Sir Philip Pullman (10/19/1946). According to Wikipedia, Sir Philip Pullman “is an English author of high-selling books, including the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials and a fictionalised biography of Jesus, The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. In 2008, The Times named Pullman one of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945".[1] In a 2004 BBC poll, he was named the eleventh most influential person in British culture.[2][3] He was knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to literature.[4]
Northern Lights, the first volume in His Dark Materials, won the 1995 Carnegie Medal of the Library Association as the year's outstanding English-language childrenn's (sic) book.[5] For the 70th anniversary it was named in the top ten by a panel composing the public election for an all-time favourite.[6] It won the public vote from the shortlist and was named all-time "Carnegie of Carnegies" in June 2007. It was filmed under the book's US title, The Golden Compass. In 2003, His Dark Materials trilogy ranked third in the BBC's The Big Read, a poll of 200 top novels voted by the British public.[7]”

NARRATOR(S):
Sir Philip Pullman and Full cast (Terence Stamp, Ray Fearon, Emma Fielding, and Philip Madoc)

Terence Stamp (7/22/1938). According to Wikipedia, Terrence “is an English actor. After training at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Art in London, he started his acting career in 1962. He has been referred to as the "master of the brooding silence" by The Guardian.[3] His performance in the title role of Billy Budd, his film debut, earned him an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor and a BAFTA nomination for Best Newcomer. Associated with the Swinging London scene of the 1960s – during which time he was in high-profile relationships with actress Julie Christie and supermodel Jean Shrimpton – Stamp was among the subjects photographed by David Bailey for a set titled Box of Pin-Ups.[4]
Stamp played butterfly collector Freddie Clegg in The Collector (1965), and in 1967 appeared in Far from the Madding Crowd, starring opposite Christie. His other major roles include playing archvillain General Zod in Superman and Superman II, tough guy Wilson in The Limey, Supreme Chancellor Valorum in Star Wars: Episode I – The Phantom Menace, transgender woman Bernadette Bassinger in The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, ghost antagonist Ramsley in The Haunted Mansion, Stick in Elektra, Pekwarsky in Wanted, Siegfried in Get Smart, Terrence Bundley in Yes Man, the Prophet of Truth in Halo 3, Mankar Camoran in The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion, and General Ludwig Beck in Valkyrie. He has appeared in two Tim Burton films, Big Eyes (2014) and Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children (2016).
For his acting, Stamp has won a Golden Globe, a Mystfest, a Cannes Film Festival Award, a Seattle International Film Festival Award, a Satellite Award, and a Silver Bear. Stamp has also had voice work, narrating Jazz Britannia on the BBC, and 1966 – A Nation Remembers on ITV in July 2016 which marked the 50th anniversary of England's 1966 FIFA World Cup victory.”

Raymond Fearon. According to Wikipedia, Ray “is a British actor who has worked in theatre, and is known for playing garage mechanic Nathan Harding on ITV's long-running soap opera Coronation Street.” His Filmography for film television and radio is also a long list.

Emma Fielding (7/10/1970). Wikipedia tells me Emma is an English actress. Her long Filmography includes Foyle’s War; Midsomer Murders; Star Wars: The Old Republic – Rise of the Hutt Cartel; Inspector George Gently; Silk; This is England ’90 and Doctor Who among many others.

Philip Madoc 7/5/1934 – 3/5/2012. According to Wikipedia, Philip “was a Welsh actor. He performed many stage, television, radio and film roles, and was recognised for having a "rich, sonorous voice" and often playing villains and officers.[3] On television, he starred as David Lloyd George in The Life and Times of David Lloyd George (1981) and DCI Noel Bain in the detective series A Mind to Kill (1994–2002). His guest roles included multiple appearances in the cult series The Avengers (1962–68) and Doctor Who (1968–1979), as well as playing the U-boat captain in the Dad's Army episode "The Deadly Attachment" (1973). He was also known to be an accomplished linguist.”

GENRE:
Fantasy; Juvenile Fiction; Juvenile Literature

LOCATIONS:
Cittagazze; Oxford; multiple other worlds including “The Land of the Dead”

SUBJECTS:
Occult; Dust/Dark Material; witches; daemons; child heroes; power struggle; rebellion; multiple worlds; magisterium; theocracy; alethiometer; prophecy; death; mulefa; harpies; spectres; religion; Christianity; mythology; Adam & Eve

DEDICATION:
Not found—perhaps it’s in the print version.

SAMPLE QUOTATION:
From Chapter 2-Balthamos and Baruch
““Be quiet,” said Will. “Just be quiet. Don’t disturb me.”
It was just after Lyra had been taken, just after Will had come down from the mountaintop, just after the witch had killed his father. Will lit the little tin lantern he’d taken from the father’s pack, using the dry matches that he’d found with it, and crouched in the lee of the rock to open Lyra’s rucksack.
He felt inside with his good hand and found the heavy velvet-wrapped alethiometer. It glittered in the lantern light, and he held it out to the two shapes that stood beside him, the shapes who called themselves angels.
“Can your read this?” he said.
“No,” said a voice. “Come with us. You must come. Come now to Lord Asriel.”
The two figures were silent for several seconds. Then they drifted away and spoke together, though Will could hear nothing of what they said.
Finally they came close again, and he heard:
“Very well. You are making a mistake, though you give us no choice. We shall help you find this child.”
Will tried to pierce the darkness and see them more clearly, but the rain filled his eyes.
“Come closer so I can see you,” he said.
They approached, but seemed to become even more obscure.
“Shall I see you better in daylight?”
“No, worse. We are not of a high order among angels.”
“Well, if I can’t see you, no one else will, either, so you can stay hidden. Go and see if you can find where Lyra’s gone. She surely can’t be far away. There was a woman—she’ll be with her—the woman took her. Go and search, and come back and tell me what you see.”
The angels rose up into the stormy air and vanished. Will felt a great sullen heaviness settle over him; he’d had little strength left before the fight with his father, and now he was nearly finished. All he wanted to do was close his eyes, which were heavy and so sore with weeping.
He tugged the cloak over his head, clutched the rucksack to his breast, and fell asleep in a moment.”

RATING:
4 stars.

STARTED-FINISHED
11/1/2021-11/14/2021 ( )

This book, and the series as a whole, just elicits an emotional reaction in me which is produced by few other books. It's not without its plotholes, conveniences and logical fallacies, and rereading it is an adult, I can see how the somewhat heavy handedness of the theological message and the writing of some female characters are valid criticisms. However, ultimately, reading a good book should make you feel things strongly, and whether it is due to its vivid characters, its imaginative worlds, its emotional conclusion or just pure nostalgia, The Amber Spyglass engages me on an emotional and an intellectual level, and leaves me perhaps less generically amazed than my younger self was, but all the more reflective and appreciative of Pullman's writing. A perfect book it may not be, but I think I will never not enjoy losing myself in it. ( )

Read it right after it came out in 2000. Hard to believe how young I was then---12---and now that I'm thinking of it, I'm curious if it'll read differently to me today.

I remember it being not quite as perfect as the first two, but still worthy. ( )

Ultimately, Pullman's reach exceeded his grasp. He just tried to cram too big a story into his trilogy (and especially in this last book). There are too many characters with incomplete story lines, who pop into the main narrative a little too frequently and a little too conveniently to save the protagonists. Properly fleshed out, this probably would have gone on for another novel or two. But by then, YA and adult readers alike would have lost interest because the story ultimately just isn't that interesting or satisfying.
The philosophical/metaphysical/theological point that Pullman introduces is just too muddled. Is the Authority God? Is Metatron? How can a being that "runs" multiple earths (if not their whole universes) be tricked so easily? And what the hell happens at the conclusion of the battle with the Kingdom of Heaven? We never learn because Lyra and Will just pop through to a different world and then completely lose interest in whether their friends survive. They never even once mention the battle again! Even 12-year-olds are not that self-absorbed.
In the end, I just kept listening because I had already committed so much time to the book. But had I never checked the book out from the library, I probably would never have missed knowing how the trilogy ended. ( )

I like the message and the ideas behind these books, but the plot didn't really blow me off my feet. Especially the whole big battle is completely underdeveloped for something which was granted so much attention in the earlier books. The dusty conclusion doesn't really satisfy after 3 volumes of building up to... what exactly?! ( )