The Amber Spyglass (novel)

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Title The Amber Spyglass

Author	Philip Pullman
Cover artist	Philip Pullman & David Scutt
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Series	His Dark Materials
Genre(s)	Fantasy novel
Publisher	Scholastic Point
Released	November 14, 2001
Media type	Print (Hardback & Paperback)
Pages	560 pp
ISBN	ISBN 0-439-99358-X
Preceded by	The Subtle Knife

The Amber Spyglass is the third and final novel in the His Dark Materials series, written by British novelist Philip Pullman, and published in 2000.

The Amber Spyglass won the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year award, a prestigious British literature award.

The Amber Spyglass deals most strongly with religious and metaphysical ideas, depicting the foreshadowed re-enactment of Milton's Paradise Lost, and finally elaborating upon the nature of Dust.

[edit] Plot summary

Lyra has been taken by her mother to a remote cave in the Himalayas of their own world, where Mrs. Coulter keeps the girl in a drugged sleep. Mrs. Coulter has the people of the village below believing that she is protecting her daughter from an enchanter who put her into the sleep while trying to find a way to wake her. As she sleeps, Lyra dreams that she is in a wasteland, talking to her dead friend Roger, whom she promises to help.

In Cittàgazze, a pair of male angels tell Will that they have come to take him, the bearer of the subtle knife, to Lord Asriel. The angels are named Balthamos and Baruch, and are lovers. Will refuses to go to Lord Asriel until they've rescued Lyra. The angels have to assent because human beings are stronger than angels.

Baruch locates Lyra in the cave. Shortly after returning to Balthamos and Will, they are attacked by a soldier of the archangel Metatron, the Authority's Regent. Metatron is the most powerful of all angels, and is now the ruler of the Kingdom of Heaven. Will cuts a window into another world through which they escape.

Balthamos and Baruch explain to Will that the Authority is not a God but an angel. He was the first angel that ever existed. For a long time, the multiverse contained only unconscious matter, but then when matter began to understand itself, Dust was formed, and angels were born out of Dust. As other angels were born, the Authority, "God," told them that he had created everything, including the angels themselves. When some angels discovered the truth, they rebelled, but the Authority won, and the rebels were cast out of the Kingdom. Now Lord Asriel is reviving the rebellion against the lies and oppression of the Authority. Now, Baruch and Balthamos must separate, as Baruch heads to Lord Asriel and Balthamos continues to help Will.

Meanwhile, the witch queen Serafina Pekkala finds the bear king Iorek Byrnison to tell him that she has failed to protect his comrade Lee Scoresby, who is now dead in another world.

Baruch reaches Lord Asriel's fortress, though he has been attacked by angels loyal to the Authority, and is weak and dying. Asriel brings him in, and Baruch explains that the Authority no longer rules Heaven; Metatron now rules in his place. The Authority is kept locked inside a crystal chamber, inside the Clouded Mountain, a vast floating mountain that is the Authority's headquarters and governing point. Metatron, as ruler of Heaven, thinks that humans are getting too independent, and he wants to set up a permanent Inquisition to make Heaven's oppression absolute.

A sect of the Magisterium called the Consistorial Court of Discipline knows where Lyra, whom they discover is to be the next Eve, is being held. They send out a small army to capture and kill her. They also know that there is a woman who will play the role of the serpent, tempting Lyra as Eve was tempted. This woman is Mary Malone. This womans path must inexorably cross with Lyra's,and the church wants to prevent this. In case the group sent out to kill Lyra fails, they have sent out Father Gomez who is to find and kill Mary if necessary.

Back in Lord Asriel's fortress, a tower of adamant, he sends out a small army of gyropters to the cave where Lyra is being held, to counterattack the army of zeppelins from the Consistorial Court. He also sends two Gallivespian spies to protect Lyra. Gallivespians resemble tiny human beings, about a handspan tall, and carry tiny spurs full of deadly poison in their heels. They fly on specially bred dragonflies, except for their chief, Lord Roke, who has a blue hawk.

Will eventually meets Iorek Byrnison, who is eager to help Will rescue Lyra when he learns of the boy's plan. Now three forces: Will, Iorek, and Balthamos; Lord Asriel's army; and the Church's army, are simultaneously heading to Mrs. Coulter's cave in the mountains.

Mary Malone steps through a window from our world into Cittàgazze, and after much traveling, steps through another window into a strange land. She finds a group of elephantine creatures with diamond-shaped skeletons who call themselves mulefa and try to speak to her. They travel by attaching round seedpods to their feet and using them as wheels. These creatures have a complex culture and language and an infectious laugh; Mary immediately begins to think of them not as creatures, but as people.

Eventually, Mary learns to communicate with the mulefa, and on occasion consults her Chinese divination device, the I Ching, which tells her to stay and learn what she can from them. She becomes particularly friendly with a female zalif (the singular word; mulefa is plural) called Atal. Atal tells a story regarding the beginning of consciousness for the mulefa, and this parallels the traditional Adam and Eve story.

Will meets a girl from the village near Mrs Coulter's cave, and they return to the cave and use the girl's medicine to wake Lyra. Will is just cutting a window back into another world, when suddenly Mrs. Coulter turns and looks directly at him. For a moment, Will is reminded of his mother. His concentration leaves the point of the knife, and it cannot cut through. It shatters, falling to the ground in seven pieces.

The two Gallivespian spies, the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, arrive to attack Mrs. Coulter. Ultimately, the Gallivespians as well as Will and Lyra escape to another world.

Mrs. Coulter is captured by Lord Asriel's forces. She escapes from the tower by stealing Lord Asriel's "intention craft" and flies off to tell the Consistorial Court everything she's learned and then to spy for Lord Asriel. Asriel is quick; he sends his chief Gallivespian spy, Lord Roke, after her, and Lord Roke manages to get into her craft.

Iorek Byrnison repairs the knife, and they all travel to the world of the dead. In order to completely cross into the world of the dead, Lyra must separate from her dæmon. Although Will does not have a dæmon he can see, he must also leave his behind.

In the mulefa world, the mulea are attacked by large birds called tualapi, which cause the loss of 7 seed-pods. Mary Malone constructs a spyglass out of sap lacquer through which she is able to see dust. Through the spyglass, Mary sees that there are vast Dust streams in the air, all flying off into the distance. At the top of the trees, there are large flowers with open petals. It is clear that the Dust is meant to be caught by the flowers to nourish the trees and infuse the seedpods.

Will and Lyra, along with Tialys and Salmakia, arrive at the land of the dead. The harpies screech at them until Lyra tells them a story to get them past. Eventually Lyra finds Roger. While Will and the Gallivespians quietly discuss how to free the ghosts, Lyra comforts them by telling them stories about her Jordan College adventures. They, and the harpies, listen intently. When Lyra stops, the harpies want more; her outpouring of truth nourished and fed them.

The Gallivespians suggest that in exchange for the stories, the harpies lead Will and Lyra, and all of the ghosts, to the highest point in the land of the dead. Will will cut a door into an outside world, and it will be the Harpies' new jobs to lead the ghosts to this opening so they can be set free.

In Lyra's world, Mrs. Coulter reaches the Consistorial Court of Discipline, where she is placed under arrest. She becomes an ally of Lord Roke. The party travels to a place called Saint-Jean-les-Eaux to detonate a bomb that was designed to hit Lyra by using a lock of her hair. Mrs. Coulter and Lord Roke fight to keep the bomb from being detonated, but it is detonated anyway. The bomb enters the land of the dead, missing Lyra but creating a great abyss.

At last, they reach the highest point, and Will cuts a large window into another world. When the ghosts step through, they dissolve into nature.

Lord Asriel lets Mrs. Coulter know that he wants to preserve Dust, not destroy it. He does not think "sin" as the Church defines it is bad. "Sin" is no more than enjoyment of life.

The final battle begins. John Parry and Lee Scoresby, both former soldiers, decide to hold themselves together when they leave the world of the dead and join Lord Asriel's army to fight the spectres, as only beings without dæmons can. Will opens a window into Lord Asriel's world, where the battle is raging, and the army of ghosts charge. Will and Lyra run through as well, with the dying Tialys and Salmakia, who are reaching the natural end of their short Gallivespian lives. Will and Lyra, to their horror, realize that they can now see the spectres, and be killed by them. They rush off to find their dæmons.

The angel Xaphania shows Lord Asriel where the abyss made by the bomb has blown a hole in the mountain. Within, Dust is visible in the air, and ghosts are parading past. At the same time, Mrs. Coulter sets off for the Clouded Mountain. She is brought before the Regent Metatron. She quickly learns that she has a great power over him, for all angels crave contact with human flesh, and Metatron especially, since he used to be a man, named Enoch, who had many wives. Pretending to be in awe of his majesty and brilliance, Mrs. Coulter offers to take Metatron to Lord Asriel to kill him.

She and Metatron fly to the abyss and find Lord Asriel. There, Mrs. Coulter instructs Metatron to wait while she speaks to Lord Asriel to set him at ease. She runs to Lord Asriel and tells him she has lied to Metatron and she loves Lyra. They decide to destroy Metatron to give their daughter time to live and grow up, even if it means their own deaths. When Metatron appears, Lyra's parents attack him. They sacrifice themselves, jumping on Metatron and falling with him into the abyss.

Will and Lyra enter the world of the mulefa in order to escape the spectres. They had grabbed their dæmons immediately before stepping through, but their dæmons ran off again after entering.

The window that Will cut from the land of the dead actually leads into the world with the mulefas. A ghost approaches Mary and says, "Tell them stories." Then she dissolves, and Mary is confused and awed. She returns to the children, deciding to "tell them stories." She tells them about being a nun, being fed marzipan by a boy, falling in love with a man, and deciding that there was no God.

The next day, Will and Lyra go out to look for their dæmons. The assassin tries to follow Lyra and Will to kill Lyra, but Balthamos kills him, and then dies as well.

Remembering Mary's marzipan story, Lyra and Will reach an amorous moment. They share a passionate kiss and finally admit that they love each other (after many affectionate gestures in the other worlds, and Will secretly admitting his fancy towards Lyra to Pantalaimon the day she was taken). It is their love for each other that stops Dust from flowing out of this world and allows it to continue nourishing the trees.

That night, Lyra and Will's dæmons meet the witch queen Serafina Pekkala. She names Will's dæmon "Kirjava." Serafina also meets with Mary, and tells her that she too has a dæmon, an Alpine chough. Their dæmons return and tell them that all the windows between the worlds must be closed, as Dust is leaking out of them all the time. Furthermore, every time a window is made, a Spectre is created. Therefore, the knife must be destroyed altogether. Lyra decides to ask the alethiometer what to do, but to her horror, she can no longer read it. She has lost the unconscious innocence that enabled her to read it by instinct.

The angel Xaphania appears and asks Will to show her how to close the windows. The angels plan to close all of them apart from the one leading out of the land of the dead. This is the only one that may stay open. This means Will and Lyra can't travel to each other's worlds to continue their relationship. Xaphania tells the children that while Dust will leave the world through the opening at the land of the dead, it will be remade by conscious thought. By living full lives of love, compassion, and wisdom, conscious beings can ensure that the essential Dust of the multiverse will continue to let life be aware of itself. She also hints that Lyra and Will may be able to someday learn how to mentally travel to each others worlds.

Will's father had told him that humans and dæmons cannot live for long in a world they don't belong to. Thus Lyra and Will must return to their own worlds and may not be able to see each other again, unless they learn how to mentally travel to each other's worlds, which may take some time. Before they leave, they sit in the Botanic Gardens and agree that this is where they will remember each other and try to meet up, should they somehow learn to mentally travel. Back at Jordan College, Lyra relates her story to the Master and Dame Hannah on the condition that they believe her, accepting that she's been a liar before. She decides to attend Dame Hannah's boarding school and study alethiometry under her.

Lyra and Pantalaimon sit on the bench in the Botanic Garden, discussing their future. They decide to follow Will's father's suggestion to build the Republic of Heaven where they are, because there isn't anywhere else.

[edit] See also

• 2000 in literature
• His Dark Materials

[edit] Further reading

• Lenz, Millicent (2005). His Dark Materials Illuminated: Critical Essays on Phillip Pullman's Trilogy. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 0-8143-3207-2. 
• Frost, Laurie (2006). The Elements of His Dark Materials. The Fell Press. 

[edit] External links

• His Dark Materials | BridgeToTheStars.Net
• HisDarkMaterials.org
• Graphical timeline (unofficial)
• ISBN 0-345-41337-7 (American paperback edition)