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[amedia]

Well, I finished The Amber Spyglass, which seemed to take forever - unlike the first two books, which I read very quickly. Every time it started to get interesting, the author would break off and take us somewhere else. I got really tired of those dratted Houhynyms - oops, I mean mulefa. Plus it was really obvious that he had an axe to grind; the preaching (if that's the right word) got in the way of the story quite a bit.

I think an editor needed to sit him down with a not-so-subtle knife and say, "Come back when it's half as long."

ETA: I should make the obligatory noises here: it was a remarkably inventive, creative work; there were some breathtaking scenes and terrific characters; there were multiple allusions of great erudition. I just didn't like it very much.

Comments

[amedia.livejournal.com]

I really liked the OMG GAY ANGELS!, especially the snarky one.

although I did learn a lot from this really nifty philosophy prof I had in college ...

Blush... grin.

I read a book once called Avalon, I think, a historical novel for which the author had obviously done tons and tons of research and wanted to make sure every single scrap of it wound up in the book, so that her heroine had a number of convoluted/contrived adventures just so she could be in a situation where we would learn about matrilineal inheritance among the Vikings or what-have-you. Sometimes this series reminded me of that - it was as if he had so many Big Philosophical ideas and he wanted to make sure they all got in. Whereas I think the central ideas would have been more powerful if the last book in particular had been more streamlined.

The more I think about it, the more I think the Authority just fading away - being killed by their kindness in letting him out (it reminds me of Meg's realization that if only she could bring herself to love The Brain, her love would kill it, in A Wrinkle in Time) - works really well for the story. There was also an interesting doubling effect: just as the Authority had usurped the role of God, Metatron (Son of Voltron!) had actually taken over from the Authority and had been running things in his name. So it was fitting that Metatron died in the big struggle over the abyss, while the Authority went out without even a whimper.

But I was disappointed in Lyra's anticlimactic resolution because her temptation and Fall had been built up so much throughout the books, anticipated with prophecies by the witches and dreaded by the Church. What precisely was her temptation, anyway, and did she fall? She didn't seem to *choose* to fall in love with Will. Now, she *did* have to make a choice, and a very painful one, when it came to closing all the windows and leaving Will forever - but that was a choice they made together, and it was too indirectly related to what Mary said; it didn't fit the prophecy about Lyra. Falling in love with Will did fit the prophecy, in the sense that it brought back the Dust, but it just didn't seem to be any real kind of temptation to sin, nor a deliberate choice that she made.