3.75*
Oh dear

My heart wants to give this 5 stars; I loved this book; it fulfilled me emotionally in every way and the ending nearly broke me. My head, however, had a couple of issues...

Firstly, the whole dog-dæmons-for-servants caste system that I didn’t like from book one reared it’s head again but, ignoring that, I had issues with the pacing. It didn’t seem to flow quite as well as the first two books and I thought the final battle with the armies of the Authority was very rushed; almost glossed over.

I also felt that a few characters were either left flapping in the wind at the end of the book or that their ultimate fate was almost brushed aside.

Despite these issues, I did love this trilogy and I look forward to reading more by Pullman.

*growls*

*throws book across the room*

*bawls*



He meant the Kingdom was over, the Kingdom of Heaven, it was all finished. We shouldn't live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.

"Tell them stories. They need the truth. You must tell them true stories, and everything will be well, just tell them stories."

Not really a review, just thoughts:

The ending upset me. I completely understand it, and it falls in line with Pullman's overall philosophy set up in the story... life without a made-up authority is going to be messy and painful and unpleasant, after all. It's more truthful and real. But it pains me to think that Lyra and Will have been through so much and sacrificed so much for... what? Love is a strong theme in the series, but they are forced to leave each other and remain "cheerful" despite it. I suppose that's the reality of life, too. Maybe it's a little too real for the fantasy I expected. I don't know. It just upsets me, as the world does.

The only hope for me is joining the Dust as atoms and being part of the universe again, at rest. Maybe I can find my daemon there. I think it left me a while ago.

I’m honestly pretty blown away, and I can’t believe I waiting this long to read His Dark Materials. It was wonderful, balancing thought-provoking philosophy with nearly breakneck-speed action in this final installment. Pullman crafted a world, or should I say worlds, that I found captivating, and characters whom I grew to care about deeply. Many of these characters, especially Lyra and Will, have taken a little piece of my heart, and I believe they’ll reside there from now on. What a marvelous adventure.

“I have stolen ideas from every book I have ever read.”

While reading this book, I did something fairly unusual for me: I kept having to write about my thoughts. Usually, I might take notes on my phone and compile them all after finishing the book, or simply take no notes at all and write a review with nothing but my final thoughts circling around in my head. I could do neither here. I had to actually write out my thoughts as they came to me, so I didn’t forget to address something that I felt was important or forget why that element felt important in the first place. Because I responded to this book so differently from most, my review is going to be a bit different, as well. The next four or five paragraphs are thoughts I had to write out while I was reading. I decided to leave them mostly in their raw form instead of polishing them up and trying to wrangle them into some kind of flow that made sense. Most of these observations and opinions are very religious in nature, as this trilogy hinges so strongly on both belief and Christian mythos, so remember that these are incredibly subjective leanings. Without further ado, here are those thoughts. If you tire of my rambling, feel free to skip down to the last two paragraphs for my final views.

“I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.”

The problem with the Church of Lyra’s world isn’t their belief or their faith, which I actually saw very little evidence in the series. The problem is that they wish to erase the gift of free will. God could have prevented the original Fall of man in the form of Eve’s choice and Adam’s decision to follow her example. But He didn’t, because one of the greatest gifts He gave us was the ability to make our own decisions through free will. Mankind has no right to revoke that right from future generations, because it’s not a right we bestowed on ourselves to begin with. Instead of taking away our ability to make our own decisions, God gave us another option: accepting the gift of salvation provided by His Son’s death and resurrection.

“All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity.”

The theory of gaining absolution before the committing of a sin is one of the most disturbing concepts I’ve encountered. It flies in the face of God’s gift and His claim to judge us by our motivations even more than by our deeds. I know that this is a tenet that was once held by very radical sects of the Church, but it’s absolutely repugnant and theologically unsound. Which actually made it a perfect fit for the Church as portrayed by Pullman.

“I’m just trying to wake up - I’m so afraid of sleeping all my life and then dying - I want to wake up first. I wouldn’t care if it was just for an hour, as long as I was properly alive and awake…”

A number of the epigraphs in the book come from John Milton’s Paradise Lost, which would have seemed like an almost too obvious decision from Pullman if this weren’t so obviously inspired in large part by Milton’s work. And as Milton conveyed Lucifer more as an antihero than a villain, it was easy to guess which side Pullman would favor in his narrative. However, Pullman’s take was original enough to maintain a level of unpredictability often absent in stories that are so closely linked to a retelling.

“People are too complicated to have simple labels.”

The descriptions of the Mulefa and their world reminded me of Perelandra, a world visited by Ransom in Lewis’s Space Trilogy. The mood, the innocence, the vast difference between the sentient creatures and humankind, and the relationship one of the adult human characters develops with these unique creatures all hearkened back to Lewis’s Ransom, and his experiences. This was a welcome addition, and was a much needed change of pace in the midst of so much action and trauma throughout the rest of the book.

“What work do I have to do then?" said Will, but went on at once, "No, on second thought, don't tell me. I shall decide what I do. If you say my work is fighting, or healing, or exploring, or whatever you might say, I'll always be thinking about it. And if I do end up doing that, I'll be resentful because it'll feel as if I didn't have a choice, and if I don't do it, I'll feel guilty because I should. Whatever I do, I will choose it, no one else.”

The spoiler that was thrown in my face when I was a child, namely that the two main characters kill God, was vastly overstated by the person who delivered it. Yes, this event does occur, but I was expecting premeditated brutality, not the quiet, heartbreaking outcome of an act of kindness. The whole worldview of this trilogy, while different from my own, was not nearly as radical as I was led to believe. This is a story of growing up, of leaving childhood when all you want to do is cling to it, of choosing one dream from many and mourning as the other possibilities move from could-be to might-have-been. It’s about doing good when it would be so much easier to be selfish, and redeeming yourself when the decisions of your past had a hand in harming others. It’s about love and free will and that fact that being able to choose your own path is both blessing and curse. I believe all these things. Where I differ from Pullman is in my belief that God is near, that He respects your choices but cares deeply about you, while Pullman conveys a God who is distant, uncaring, and fallible. I very strongly disagree with this quote and others like it for pretty obvious reasons:

“The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake.”

Pullman and I couldn’t be more opposed on that statement. Did that difference make me love this book, and the trilogy in its entirety, any less? Absolutely not.

“When you choose one way out of many, all the ways you don't take are snuffed out like candles, as if they'd never existed.”

I was honestly blown about by His Dark Materials. It is one of the richest, most lovingly crafted trilogies I’ve had the pleasure of reading. It is epic and heartbreaking and sweet and fierce, and I absolutely loved it. Both Lyra and Will, and many of their supporting cast, will always have a place in my heart. Especially Lyra. She is kind and brave and incredibly loving, and I think every little girl could use a role model like her. Each book somehow improved the volume that preceded it, and it’s a series that I believe will lend itself very well to rereadings. His Dark Materials is a modern classic of the fantasy genre for a reason, and it’s well worth your time.

You can find this review and more at Novel Notions.

LOVE THIS SERIES W MY HEART N SOUL

Loved it 13 years ago, loved it even MORE this second time around. Man, I don't how I missed all the religious stuff the first time I read it but I did. Not this time. I see why certain religious groups got so agitated. But it's fiction and it's merely asking ...well,demanding readers (young and old) to think, consider, turn things around. People of all religious and spiritual persuasions should do that, regardless, imho. But then again, I'm not Christian, so my religious beliefs (well, I don't follow ANY religion) aren't being narratively hacked at by this novel's story-line...so I guess my point-of-view on this is more distant. Nevertheless, awesome read.

When I was 11 I wrote something very much like this, a contrarian mis-interpretation of Milton's work coupled with several action sequences. When I was 13 I threw it away because I recognized how cliched, how facile, how very, very unoriginal it really was. Imagine my surprise when, after finally reading this series which so many people had ranted and raved about, i discover it to be little more than that: a contrarian mis-interpretation of Milton written by a perpetually bitter adolescent. This is the sort of thing I thought was cool when I was 10 or 11, and which most people think is cool when they are in High School. It is also the sort of thing most of us grow up and discard, having matured and moved on. Sadly Pullman and his fans seem to be stuck with a very one-dimensional reading of Milton, the Bible, religion...and, well, most things in life.

His awareness of religion seems to be limited primarily to neo-paganism, Catholicism/Anglicanism, and maaaaaaaaybe Islam; the characters are paper-thin; the plot has been done better elsewhere; and the smug sense of self-righteousness that bleeds through every phrase is suffocating. It's like Pullman just listed a bunch of traditional beliefs/doctrines/assumptions, recast them as their opposites, and genuinely believed himself to be doing something original and revelatory. It's almost sad.

Contrarian elements:

Is God traditionally good? Then let's make him BAD!
Is religion traditionally good? Then let's make it BAD!
Is God traditionally omnipotent? Then let's make him FEEBLE!
Is God traditionally omniscient? Then let's make him SENILE!
Is homosexualty traditionally bad? Then let's make God & the angels GAY! (which, if you think about it, is effectively saying homosexuality is bad...)
Is the Devil traditionally bad? Then let's make him GOOD!
Is the Devil traditionally male? Then let's make him FEMALE!
Is the Devil traditionally fascinating? Then let's make her DULL!
Is the Devil traditionally the focal character? Then let's reduce her role to A FEW OFFHAND REMARKS BY OTHER CHARACTERS!
Are witches traditionally bad? Then let's make them GOOD!

It goes on like that for several-hundred, tiresome pages. Throw in some racism, anti-Islamism and anti-Catholicism and you've got the entire book.




ADDENDUM: [Composed in part as a response to a 5-star review of The Golden Compass I read elsewhere]

I think people can see it as atheist propaganda because its author has admitted it is such. Also, its God-analogue is a senile, toothless being desperate for death, and both he and his fellow-angels are actually just extra-dimensional aliens who've been lying to everyone and merely pretending to be the creators of the universe -- this is stated in the narrative. They have been lying and deceiving everyone to maintain their authoritarian regime.

Also, part of the point of Milton's Lucifer is that he's a charismatic and convincing, but also a self-centered liar. He preaches rebellion, then rallies the troops with a promise of freedom...but still places himself above them. All that talk of "reigning in Hell" ultimately only applies to him; all the other out-casts are still under him, even if some of them wind up ranking higher than some of their other fellow out-casts.

tThis book was twisted. The plot was very contrived and the characters have lost the remaining appeal that they had in the first 2 books. The "redemption" of Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel is utterly unconvincing. Pullman makes an open mockery of God, whom he depicts as a weak, timid, helpless old being manipulated by a twisted, tryanicial angel. No, Lyra and Wil don't kill God in the end, but Pullman does. The story culminates in the predictable recreation of Adam and Eve's experience in the garden, with the conclusion that Satan had it right all along.
The problem with Pullman's "Republic of Heaven" ideal is that he puts too much faith in humanity. History has proven time and again that men are incapable of building and sustaining a truly benevolent society. We need God in order to build heaven. (The true God, not a warped idea of Him as seen in many religions today). The only thing worse than religious oppression is Godless oppression.
Pullman is right that men have corrupted the truth, and this is manifest in many false teachings in religions today, but he is wrong in concluding that this is God's fault, or that the very idea of God is false, and that God himself is a corrupt invention of man. There is a God, He is good, and there is a true way of worshipping him that affirms humanity.
Pullman is also right that human passions have wrongfully been suppressed by many religions. But he is wrong in suggesting that there should be no higher authority to set bounds on human passions. Our passions are God-given, and God desires that we enjoy them. He teaches us, not to deny ourselves of these passions, but to deny ourselves of selfish and harmful (to ourselves or to others) expressions of these passions. There is an appropriate bounds. True religion strikes the right balance between the full expression of human passion and approprate self restraint.
Finally, Pullman is also right about one thing in the Garden of Eden: it was a good thing, ultimately, that Adam and Eve partook of that fruit. It is in fact what God intended to happen. There was nothing inherently evil in the fruit itself. The sin was in doing so at Satan's urging.

E quase dez anos depois de ter lido o primeiro volume - e ainda não ter percebido porque não lhe dei logo continuidade - Philip Pullman juntou-se a Tolkien e Juliet Marillier no meu compartimento cardíaco dedicado à Fantasia. Muito, muito maravilhoso.

Okay, before I say what I need to say let me just say that I really loved this series, it was inventive and original, I've never really read anything like it. The only disappointment was that it seemed anti-climactic. I was expecting a little more to the ending, going out with a bang, not the relatively quiet exit that it actually had. It didn't kill the novel for me, but it did disappoint me a bit. I'm wondering if Pullman chickened out with a big ending he originally intended or someone stepped in and made him change it. I wouldn't be surprised if it was the latter because the book does deal with some pretty controversial issues. Either way everything was tied up very nicely and all my questions were answered. But he also ended it in a way that sort of left it so you can also make your own decisions on what happened or what else will happen, I liked that a lot because I felt that it meant Pullman had a lot of trust in his readers.

Once again Pullman's writing did not disappoint, he explained things without spelling them out but also so even those not well versed in religion, science or fantasy could understand what he was talking about. His vivid descriptions still survived well into the last page of this last book. And even though there was a lot of jumping around from character to character it was done smoothly so the reader wasn't annoyed or left feeling jarred out of place. All of his characters grew and became even more demensional, though it did make Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter a little more confusing... were they good or were they bad? I kind of enjoyed that delicate line they balanced on.

I think one of the most wonderful parts in the story was Will and Lyra's relationship. It had to be treated so carefully because while they were still kids on the cusp of becoming adults, they had just been through so much that shaped them and had them grow. The relationship just didn't happen, there were hints scattered throughout so when they finally did get together you weren't seeing it as unbelievable, you were seeing it as something you knew was coming. It also wasn't too adult, it was perfect for them. Children that weren't quite children due to what they had just been through, but not quite adults due to their age. It was heartbreaking when they wouldn't be able to be together anymore because you knew it just wasn't a young first love, it was a true and deep love they more than likely won't find again. It was because their love was so raw and undying that they were able to change the Dust and help the worlds. It was honest, true love, the love that Mary explained to them, the "forbidden fruit" if you will.

Overall I loved this series, every character was a joy unless they were specifically supposed to be cruel and unliked, and even then they weren't annoying and I wasn't finding myself wanting to skip past the pages they were in. The fact that Pullman was able to address so many issues (especially the ones about religion) without getting preachy or dry was another thing I think made the novels truly enjoyable. As a Christian I didn't feel the need to get defensive about how he represented God and religion altogether because he presented it in a fashion that while you believed it to be true in the world of the novels, you knew it wasn't an outright attack on the beliefs of many.

In the end this was a fantastic series that was very much a worthwhile and enjoyable read. I don't think it's a series that's aimed towards a specific group of people because it encompasses so much. There is bound to be something within the novel you find and bond to that keeps you reading. And, personally, as much as they say it's a children's book, I think it's totally an adult read as well. Maybe even moreso than a kid's read, you think?

Reseña de "Luces del Norte" (La Materia Oscura 1)
Reseña de "La Daga" (La Materia Oscura 2)


Siento un bug en mi vida por el tema del tamaño de las ediciones...


n  

Averiguamos que habíamos traído a nuestras muertes. Lo averiguamos al llegar aquí. La llevábamos siempre encima, pero no lo sabíamos. Todos tenemos una muerte, ¿comprendéis? Nos acompaña a todas partes, durante toda la vida, sin alejarse de nuestro lado.

n

Durante gran parte del libro pensé en dejarlo en simples cuatro estrellas, pero las últimas cien páginas hicieron que cualquier prejuicio que haya tenido se desvaneciera. La saga me cautivó desde la primera página hasta ese merecido -aunque agridulce- final.

n  

n    
LO MEJOR:
n  

n
n  Lyra y Will.n Los protagonistas enamoran, no solo con sus acciones y sus sentimientos, sino con su tierna edad, su inocencia, su nobleza y su final. Estoy muy triste, no me toquen.



La señora Coulter también tiene una mención especial en esta sección.

n  También, las relaciones de los personajes entre sí.n No hablo solo de Lyra y Will (que me han roto el corazón), sino de todos en general. La relación entre Lyra y Pan me ha sacado un par de lágrimas en más de una ocasión, y también encuentro espectacular el planteo de la familia de Lyra, con la señora Coulter y lord Asriel. Esta pareja, ¿ama a su hija? ¿Lord Asriel oculta su amor por su hija o realmente la odia? ¿La señora Coulter está loca y por eso quiere proteger a su hija, pero al hacerlo colabora con el enemigo? ¿Cuál es la verdadera intención de esta pareja dispareja, que luchan entre sí, pero se aman, y a la vez colisionan sus ideales? En serio, debería haber un libro entero explicando cómo funciona esta familia.

n  

n    
LO BUENO:
n  

n
n  La religión hecha añicos.n No, che, no soy hereje. Pero son pocos los libros hoy en día que te plantean tan lisa y llanamente críticas hacia la religión cristiana. Si andan medio enclenques con respecto a su credo, esta saga los va a lastimar.

De hecho, el tema de que Pullman es ateo y haya plasmado sus ideales en estos libros, le trajo bastante controversia al autor. Se considera a esta saga una cosa así como lo contrario a Narnia, el camino opuesto. Incluso es objeto de debate y discusión en algunas instituciones. Lo que logró este hombre no tiene límites.

n  

n    
LO MALO:
n  

n
n  La brutalidad de los planteos.n Para las mentes sensibles, tal vez estos libros no sean lo que necesiten. La burla llegó a un punto álgido cuando Pullman se atrevió a colocar una pareja de ángeles hombres homosexuales. También creo que, si andaban buscando una saga fantasiosa, estos libros tampoco funcionarán. Como saga meramente fantástica resulta hasta ridícula el conjunto de elementos que trae a colación (vamos, que hasta hay criaturas pseudo-hadas llamadas gavillespeanos), pero si se lee entre líneas, todo ese agregado queda en un segundo plano.

n  

n    
LO PEOR:
n  

n
n  Los mulefa.n No me malinterpreten, hallé fascinantes a esas criaturas (son algo como esto: n  n), pero de tanto que Pullman quiso explorar a esa nueva raza de seres, que terminó aburriéndome. Ellos fueron la razón por la que casi le bajo una estrella a este libro. Los descubrimientos de Mary durante estos capítulos son grandiosos, pero me hubiese gustado que estuviesen resumidos... en menos páginas.

En resumen, este tercer libro no me gustó tanto como el segundo, pero no pierde la calidad. Me da la sensación de que Pullman se superó a sí mismo con lo que esperaba hacer, tanto en narración como en argumento, y estoy muy contenta de que pronto vuelva a escribir sobre estos personajes, porque el cariño que les tengo a Lyra, Will y a sus daimonions (y a Lee Scoresby -estoy bien, no me toquen), a las brujas, a la señora Coulter (que se ganó un lugar especial en mi corazón como villana/antiheroína), a Iorek, y a los giptanos, hizo que esta saga se convirtiera en una de mis favoritas.

Lo que empezó como una simple saga fantástica me abrió los ojos a nuevas ideas que nunca se me habían ocurrido. Plantea la teoría del multiverso de una manera inteligente y singular. Y hace que quieras a los personajes con los que compartiste alrededor de mil páginas. Yo no sé ustedes, pero recomiendo la saga, tanto por su calidad de historia de aventuras, como ensayo contra la religión cristiana. Además, sigo queriendo tener un daimonion. Capaz que si fuerzo la vista lo vea por ahí.

n  -¿Dónde está Dios, si está vivo?-preguntó la señora Coulter- ¿Por qué ha dejado de hablar? Al comienzo del mundo, Dios se paseaba por el jardín y hablaba con Adán y Eva. Luego se encerró en sí mismo, y el único que oyó su voz fue Moisés. Posteriormente, durante la época de Daniel, envejeció, se convirtió en el Antiguo de los Días. ¿Dónde está ahora? ¿Vive aún, a una edad inconcebible, decrépito y demente, incapaz de pensar, actuar o hablar, incapaz de morir, convertido en un cascarón podrido? Y si se halla en ese estado, ¿no sería más misericordioso, la verdadera prueba de nuestro amor por Dios, ir en su busca y concederle el don de la muerte?n

I would not have read this book were it not for my friend Pat E. who told me several years ago that it was one of the best books she had ever read, and also said it was the first children’s book to have won England’s prestigious Whitbread Prize for Literature. So I read the whole series over the next couple years, and in this process discovered that one of my English department’s medievalists said it was one of his favorite series. Did I know, he asked, that Pullman was actually in conversation with John Milton’s Paradise Lost as he wrote the series, which came to be called His Dark Materials (the title from Milton), particularly in The Amber Spyglass? Nope, I said, I had had no idea, so I paid some attention to that aspect of the book as I read it. A little attention, I say, because I am no Milton scholar, and how many are who would be reading it? Nor had I read more than the sections of Paradise Lost I had read in the survey Brit lit course I had taken decades ago.

Now, many years later, I and my family have invested some 37 hours listening to the audio version CDs of His Dark Materials narrated by Pullman himself. Last summer, the first book, The Golden Compass, last fall the second in the series, The Subtle Knife, and now the third, The Amber Spyglass. Which I loved, and then I find that one of the Goodreads reviewers I much respect hated this series, and a little Goodreads argument through his highly critical review ensued. So I at one point read his review and the subsequent hubbub, mostly pushback on him from Pullman fans. I went back and looked at his review to see if I might, on reflection, change my mind. I did review the book and disagree with him, as will happen here, obviously. I learned from that review, but I still think it’s a great book. And reread this review in November 2017 as I wait for my family copy of Pullman's fall 2017 release, The Book of Dust, that is part of this world.

One place to start in thinking of this book is that Pullman, unlike C.S. Lewis, another prominent fantasy writer, is as he refers to himself, “an atheist, or agnostic atheist.” Lewis, a Christian, once an outspoken atheist, recounts his sudden epiphany of faith in Surprised by Joy. This review is being written by an agnostic once raised in the Calvinist (Dutch) Christian Reformed Church. I not only know that tradition, but actually taught in Christian schools, even taught classes on the Bible in them for a couple years. I say that not to establish credibility on theological/religious issues Pullman explores here, but because sometimes you read a book more through your life, “subjectively,” than you might read other books. I am pretty familiar with some of the territory Pullman treads.

Theological issues, in a children’s book? Well, this children’s book thing, that’s marketing, according to Pullman. He intended to have adults—all ages—read this trilogy, too. And we should, and we do. Since in many ways he is commenting on Christian/spiritual traditions as they are evident in literature, Pullman wants to be in conversation with people who have read John Milton’s Paradise Lost and/or C. S. Lewis’s Narnia Chronicles, two of the best known epics in the history of English literature. His Dark Materials is also an epic novel series, but it is, like much literature, talking in various ways to the authors whose literature that it is built on. You don’t need to have read those works, for real, but it doesn’t hurt, either.

In this case, Pullman has written a version of Paradise Lost, an inversion of the central arc of that tale. Milton seemed to claim, in keeping with the Calvinist tradition, that the single terrible shaping moment in human history was the invention of the myth of “original sin”—a sexual sin—of Adam and Eve. Satan, an angel who fell from Heaven, engineers this act. In Amber Spyglass, Pullman has Mary “tempt” Lyra through her story of falling in love. Lyra “gives in” to this temptation as she realizes she loves Will (though the American publisher amazingly cut some of the details of Lyra’s physical responses to being with Will!).

Pullman thinks the Church got it wrong from the beginning and throughout history in obsessively focusing on sexuality as “sinful”. To split the body from the soul as he suggests Christianity does is for Pullman a horrible, horrible mistake. Materiality is a good thing, Pullman says; the Earth should not be seen as a temporary place to wait until you get to the really good place, Heaven, but a place where we should fully, existentially, engage. “Dæmons” are a cool aspect of this story, sort of spirit companions, usually in the shape of animals or birds, and all humans have them, like souls, and when you are young they can shift. It's a kind of identity conceit, as identity in youth is in flux, in construction. As Pullman sees it, The Church wants to separate you from your (individualized; think of it as a personal relationship to the spiritual realm, or God) dæmon, metaphorically, and this is a horrible thing, in Pullman’s view.

Pullman also thinks the Church—and specifically the Roman Catholic Church, though almost all Christian theology is pretty consistent—in deciding their binary view of good and evil is the “right” one, is narrow and simplistic. His view—in part supported by contemporary physics—is that there are multiple spiritual worlds and traditions, all of which should be supported and celebrated. Pullman favors diversity of all kinds—spiritual, cultural, biological. We are different and interdependent or we expire as a human race.

His key central concept for a deeper relationship to the universe is “dust” which would seem to be a synonym for consciousness, or wisdom, though it is potentially also visible in the natural world with the right attitude (and/or a Steam Punkish instrument, such as is the Amber Spyglass). Instead of Christianity's idea of One All-Powerful God, Pullman flips that script to show us the limitation of that view through the specter of The Authority, who is frail, weak, sniveling, small-minded, associated with a bad group from the Church called The Magisterium who wants to control your minds and souls and bodies. Ultimately the series is about growing up in the face of an oppressive adult religious soul-killing authority. We need more connection to the natural world than Christianity seems to have fostered, Pullman insists. And we need more joy and a spirit of adventure and discovery and imagination than the Church would seem to have given us. We need to stop thinking our bodies and the material world are somehow just merely bad.

So is Pullman’s view anti-Christian, or anti-spiritual? I don’t think so, not really. He’s about expanding spiritual horizons rather than getting rid of them. And he knows how to have fun, in this rollicking adventure. And he loves Milton, too, though he disagrees with him. He just prefers William Blake’s more complex cosmology. The epigraphs before every chapter are wonderful, perfect, a guide to the argument that is coiled deeply in his story. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, endorsed the series, calling the books instructive, saying they are in fact about the death of a false God and the upholding of true Christian values. Williams even went so far as to say that Pullman’s series should be taught in schools. Fundamentalists, needless to say, do not agree. But the imagination is key to spiritual health for Pullman. He does not think most religions value imagination.

In this final volume Lyra and Will travel to the World of the Dead to visit Roger, and Will’s father, which is maybe the single most powerful sequence of the whole series. Along the way, assumptions about the good or evil of individual characters of the book are questioned. Is Mrs. Coulter, Lyra’s mother, evil? Is Lord Asriel good? What are the limitations of such categories? Lyra is a liar, which is a good thing in some situations; fiction is a wonderful and useful adaptive strategy in the world, but lies, or false stories, can also be hurtful. Will is a good guy, but he also kills people. The Magisterium has sent Father Gomez to kill Lyra and Will; he seems closer to a completely bad guy than almost anyone in this tale, but even he claims to want the best for kids. The former nun and physicist Mary Malone is a pretty good person, a guide for Will and Lyra in the absence of The Magisterum. Iorok Byrnison, the flying armored bear who has special capabilities with metal-working, once a (captive) drunk, is a great and mostly good character.

I prefer the sheer imaginative joy of the first volume, The Golden Compass, with its strong girl character Lyra; she shares the stage with boy Will in the later two books. The last book is less a children’s book than the first, and it’s more serious, a little less fun. But the last book is powerful, and often moving. Who wouldn’t want to have one final talk with those we love who have died? The plot in this last book sort of rambles slowly along, contemplative and reflective as it intends to be. After being primarily an adventure story, The Amber Spyglass slows down and helps resolve all the central issues. But I still truly loved it. I maybe especially loved it because I heard Pullman's sweet and loving and gentle voice on tape shape the narration, as well as all the wonderful characters read by great actors, so well acted.

Pullman also has a bone to pick with C. S. Lewis, whose fantasy children’s series The Narnia Chronicles I grew up loving. Pullman told The New York Times in 2000: “When you look at what C.S. Lewis is saying, his message is so anti-life, so cruel, so unjust. The view that the Narnia books have for the material world is one of almost undisguised contempt. At one point, the old professor says, ‘It’s all in Plato’ — meaning that the physical world we see around us is the crude, shabby, imperfect, second-rate copy of something much better. I want to emphasize the simple physical truth of things, the absolute primacy of the material life, rather than the spiritual or the afterlife.” I loved growing up (in the bosom of a Calvinist church!) reading The Narnia Chronicles, and I don't recall all the harshness to which Pullman refers, but I read it when I was steeped in that theology. So he may have a point there.

Pullman argues finally, for embracing a “republic of heaven” here on Earth. This is Blake--and not Milton-- talking through Pullman, advocating a pluralistic way of life and not a monotheistic religion. Be God where you are, Pullman says. Pullman’s view is closer to Buddhism, and the I Ching and existentialist Christianity (think Kierkegaard). Renounce (the One) or False God, he says, and instead Be God, which as I see it is one interpretation of what Christianity is saying a Christian ought to become. No guru, no teacher, as Van Morrison sings. In the end, Lyra, having lost her ability to read the alethiometer intuitively, decides to return to Oxford to study alethiometry, which might just be another word for how Pullman sees fantasy, as the narrative exploration of multiple worlds and dimensions and truths. In the end, Lyra and her dæmon Pantalaimon, who has taken the permanent form of a pine marten, resolve to build the republic of Heaven on Earth. In the light of the ongoing destruction of the planet, this is a hopeful vision of how we should be living the spiritual life, honoring the environment.