Critique: The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials #3) (Philip Pullman) 2/2

*****SPOILERS*****

 

Questions

The armoured bears are some of the more interesting things that came out of this series. Their culture and perspectives were well thought through.

            Thirty bears migrate south with Iorik. What we don’t know is whether only thirty decided to migrate or whether there were only thirty bears in total. If the latter was true, their gene pool is very limited.

When Will bumps into Iorik, the bear wants to see the Knife. Will says will only show it to one bear (Iorik), Iorik says that’s him, and then Will says ‘”I know.’” THEN WHY GO THROUGH THAT WHOLE CHARADE?

           

Gullivespians are tiny gnome-like creatures that accompany Lyra and Will on their travels.

Lyra lets the gullivespians sit on her shoulders. But gullivespians have poisonous spurs on their heels. Lyra’s moving and the tiny people are swinging their legs. How did they not prick Lyra?

King Ogunwe, one of Asriel’s commanders, says the gullivespians’ world has two conscious forms of life (including humans) unlike Lyra’s world of demons. Considering Lyra’s world has the armoured bears that show their intellect to be on par with humanity, it seems odd to say it doesn’t have two conscious forms of life.

 

The mystery of Mrs Coulter grows and grows.

Coulter says Asriel lied about wanting to destroy it but in reality preserve it. Where on Earth did she get that notion from? But then Asriel confirms it! There’s been no indication about this at all.

Mrs Coulter sneaks into the intention craft. In the past, Asriel says only someone from their world can drive it because demons need to hold a stick for it to work. Yet Coulter’s demon is flying around the cabin, not touching the stick. One could argue that it just needs a demon to start it but Asriel specifically said drive.

So Coulter knows Asriel’s true intentions despite Asriel showing no indication of what they are (just like how she somehow knew an invisible witch was watching her). Coulter can drive the intention craft without following the demon rules (just like how her demon can travel far away from her). Coulter just happens to know how to persuade Metatron to do what he wants (just like how she can command anything). Mrs Coulter is a mystery with no really explanations on the horizon. Considering she dies in this book, I doubt we’ll ever find out.

 

Here are some miscellaneous questions.

It’s stated that angels can’t touch flesh. Yet somehow, Coulter and Asriel can wrestle with Metatron and Balthamos can touch Gomez. This creates a contradiction that editing could have easily removed.

Mary was once a nun whose vow meant she could never love. But she wanted to feel love so she concluded that God doesn’t exist. Uh, that’s an awful argument. Disliking something in no way means it doesn’t exist: if anything, it proves its existence. Mary is a physicist so she clearly has a decent brain. A brain that shouldn’t reach stupid conclusions. You’re not Lyra, Mary! (Although as so many people in this series come to awful conclusions, perhaps it’s the author at fault.)

Father Gomez is sent by the Magisterium to kill Lyra. When he comes into the mulefa world, he decides the creatures are abominable and Satanic because they ride on wheels. Things are given bad labels by the Church if it goes against its teachings. Now, I find it hard to believe that the Magisterium has ever stated a view on a wheeled creature because they’ve never seen one before.

Before this, Gomez kills a tualapi (mortal enemies of the mulefa) and then they fee him. This is bizarre. Then because of this he knows he can control them. Um… what.

 

Convenient Plot

It’s stated that everyone’s death (a shadowy individual, as seen in the World of the Dead) is always with them.

But if this is the case, how could Lyra lie to hers? Those lies were necessary to the plot. Thus the fact that deaths are always with people puts the plot on shaky foundations.

The problem with deaths don’t end there. The characters only find out about deaths right before they need deaths to safely enter the World of the Dead. This was a bit convenient. Not just convenient for the plot but convenient for the author, too.

 

Unfortunately, book three contains countless examples of convenient plot points. It’s a shame because it robs from the joy and excitement of reading.

Asriel sends people out to find Will’s and Lyra’s demons. They happen to be in the most convenient place in his world. Then a bit later, Asriel goes into the abyss that appears in all worlds to find the demons… Well then the demons weren’t in Asriel’s world, or they moved without the author bothering to tell the reader. He should have chosen one or the other because having both in unnecessary and messy.

Will and Lyra bump into the crystal litter carrying the elderly Authority (who’s just an angel; ‘God’ was a ruse). All of his guards are gone and how Will and Lyra so conveniently got just where the plot needed them. Not impressed.

Lyra and Will being in love fixes the Dust problem. Come on, are you serious? How exactly does that work? The readers get detailed explanations about everything, even things that aren’t really important (I appreciate it all the same). So why do we get no explanation for something so important? It’s a bit of a cop out and entirely a disappointment.

 

Other

It would go amiss to not mention these miscellaneous points.

            The fingers of the angels were light and cool. Getting that description was good. What’s more interesting in that, whilst they’re made of light, they’re not hot (heat being a by-product of light). On cold days the sun’s light isn’t hot yet it’s still there (we can still see) so not-hot-light isn’t farfetched.

            After Asriel explains how to drive the intention machine to Mrs Coulter, she says, ‘”I see”’ then pushes out of it. That gave me the biggest laugh in this book.

            Lyra and Will really go at the kissing and then they bathed together. It was like reading about characters kissing in their late teens/early twenties, rather than kissing at twelve years-old (like Lyra and Will). So that was uncomfortable to read.

 

All the worlds and civilisation were so intriguing and discovering them all again was enjoyable. I’m afraid they alone bore the weight of His Dark Materials.