The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass

The Subtle Knife

Not too much to say about this one. I think I really did like The Golden Compass best out of all three in terms of plot, setting and characters. The Subtle Knife wasn't bad but Will, as a character, was less interesting to me than Lyra. I don't like impatient, bossy characters and that's what Will was. He was always angry and impatient with someone or something or himself and the plot didn't grab me as much.

Feminism-wise, eh, it was okay. The only new semi-major female character was Mary Malone whose expert scientific ability was overshadowed by her scatterbrained, oh-what-do-I-do-now handwringing. Kinda frustrating. Meanwhile, Lyra stopped being the stubbon fire-brand tomboy she was in the first book and became a mostly-passive little follower of Will.

I mean, she wasn't completely changed but enough that I missed the way she was in the first book. She stopped using the alethiometer entirely because of some vague concern that Will might object... even though she wasn't asking questions about him. It felt frustrating and out-of-character. It also felt lazy on Phillip Pullman's part: whoops, I gave the characters a thing that will foretell all the plot twists I was going to throw at them, damn, I need to think up some way to make them stop using it. I know that Book 2 was Will's story more than Lyra's but I guess I'd been hoping she wouldn't stop being a confident active character.

The Amber Spyglass

The third book felt strangely anticlimactic. The land of the dead was interesting and the whole concept of the dust and the windows was interesting... but the end of the book felt very anticlimactic.

Mary Malone in this book becomes a walking plot device more or less. Lyra regains a bit of her former pluck but not nearly enough. She morphs from the androgynous spitfire wonder child into the loving Eve.

I'm not really sure what to say other than that most of the female characters fell into two categories by the end of the trilogy: mothers or lovers/beloveds. Any female character in the book who meets Lyra or Will turns in to a doting, caring mother figure. Even the cold aloof witches, even the scientist, even the wasp/fairy (I can't remembe the name) woman, even Mrs. Coulter.

I would've liked it better if Mrs. Coulter had retained her natural disdain for Lyra, she didn't need to be redeemed. Female characters can be evil, female characters can be selfish, female characters don't all need to be perfect mothers. Even the harpies became nice at the end! Female characters don't need to be tamed, dammit. And Lyra and Mrs. Coulter became adoring, supportive partners to their respective beloveds. Which is fine and all, love is good. I just didn't want them to stop being all the strong, independent active things that made them distinct characters in the process.