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cookedw 's review for:
The Amber Spyglass
by Philip Pullman
This book is just plain weird. To his credit, Pullman does a very good job of describing his holy war. And the land of the dead is also well done. But the mulefa is just plain bizarre, and it doesn't seem to add anything at all to the story.
The big issue I have with this book is that it feels like Pullman has bit off more than he could chew. He wants to throw everything and the kitchen sink into this trilogy, and because of that he ends up with too many threads to tie off. He does close off everything, but some lines feel very forced, in particular the assassin, whose entire storyline is built up and then resolves itself in a completely stupid and pointless way.
The worst aspect of this book, however, is the ending, which seems so ridiculously cheesy and completely against all religious and spiritual opinions Pullman emphasizes about Dust throughout the trilogy. To put two teenagers falling in love as a pivotal point in awareness is just awful. It also paints Lyra and Will as far older than their years.
Overall, this is a very entertaining and ambitious trilogy, but I feel like Pullman's desire to piss on the church ends up clouding what could have been a much more subtle and interesting story. It just feels like trying to cram everything he wanted to into the books created a story that got out of his control, and I couldn't help feeling like it was in need of editing. His language is great, but the story just seems like unwieldy, albeit still quite interesting.
The big issue I have with this book is that it feels like Pullman has bit off more than he could chew. He wants to throw everything and the kitchen sink into this trilogy, and because of that he ends up with too many threads to tie off. He does close off everything, but some lines feel very forced, in particular the assassin, whose entire storyline is built up and then resolves itself in a completely stupid and pointless way.
The worst aspect of this book, however, is the ending, which seems so ridiculously cheesy and completely against all religious and spiritual opinions Pullman emphasizes about Dust throughout the trilogy. To put two teenagers falling in love as a pivotal point in awareness is just awful. It also paints Lyra and Will as far older than their years.
Overall, this is a very entertaining and ambitious trilogy, but I feel like Pullman's desire to piss on the church ends up clouding what could have been a much more subtle and interesting story. It just feels like trying to cram everything he wanted to into the books created a story that got out of his control, and I couldn't help feeling like it was in need of editing. His language is great, but the story just seems like unwieldy, albeit still quite interesting.