The Amber Spyglass

• 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.

• It is literally decades since I read it and all I could remember was that I loved it, and the mulefa. But of course there was so much more to it than that. And I cried my eyes out at the end.

• This was my favorite book of the trilogy. I was already convinced of Pullman's talents as an author, but in this book I think his style takes a leap forward: not only is it masterfully written, but the various events are handled to perfection, as is the pacing of chapters, which becomes much more concise and dynamic.

• To quote a line from the latter half of the book: 'People are too complex to have simple labels.' For a book originating from a fairy-tale premise, the author ventures further, ponders deeper, and articulates more than others. I do not even know whether children should encounter so much pain, grief, and parting, but I am captivated by that glimmer of starlight in the world of the dead, and moved to joyful tears by the love between Lyra and Will; I would gladly explain it all honestly to children, telling even the saddest stories with kindness and purity.

• Much more striking and immersive than its predecessors, the third volume of the trilogy finally gives readers the understanding of the multiple worlds they had been waiting for, reuniting Will and Lyra in a war that neither of them ever wished to take part in.

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