In The Amber Spyglass, the final book in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, most of the loose ends are tied up and his themes are further developed. Though the
ending is somewhat ambiguous, Pullman offers a strong ending to an intellectually challenging trilogy.
Lord Asriel's epic battle against the Almighty comes to a head, with various races lining up on each side. The supernatural powers of Lord Asriel's enemy are tantalizingly matched by the technology and
science of Lord Asriel's forces.
Despite the grandiose and far-reaching tone of this battle, however, it is merely a backdrop to a more fundamental plot involving Lyra, Will, and Mary Malone.
As an aside, Mary's role seems to be more metaphorical than functional. Her investigations into the nature of dust—and life's relationship to it—serve to pull together many of the observations from the previous books. But the main plot seems to progress naturally without Mary’s hindrance or aid. Given the number of pages devoted to Mary Malone's scientific explorations, I found this somewhat disheartening. Still, despite this small let-down, I did enjoy her natural curiosity and Pullman’s excellent grasp of the scientific spirit (though this could just be the science nerd in me talking).
Not surprisingly, The Amber Spyglass upholds Pullman’s tradition of providing no clear answers. No blacks, few whites, and a multitude of greys. Even some of the characters I was pretty sure were bad ended up either changing or having new light shed on them (except for the
Church–despite their best intentions, there’s little goodness among that lot.) While this penchant for grey area may have lessened the reader’s initial confidence with the ending, Pullman has also ensured that any group of readers will have fertile soil for a lively debate.
Overall, I would rank this series quite high. Though there were some slower scenes, and my knee-jerk reaction is to categorize His Dark Materials among the “good, but I’ve
read better” variety, two core aspects of Pullman’s work make this a must-read for fantasy/science
fiction YA (and adult) readers. First, the discussion of church authority vs. free will is explored in depth throughout the books in a novel manner. And second, the skillful mixture of science fiction (and I’m talking old-style science fiction: the kind the pulls in real science) and fantasy is done better than in any book I’ve ever read.