Another book complete. This trilogy is seriously absorbing. First bears and now we’ve got even more creatures in this multiverse. Things just got a lot more complicated.
Now I understand why the HBO series was adding clips of Lord Boreal searching for John Parry, and the events with his son Will is what builds up to him eventually stepping through the window simultaneously as Lyra crossing the bridge from her own world.
Apparently Asriel’s opening of the bridge created a force in the world both Will and Lyra meet in: Primarily inhabited by children but also infested by Specters: forms of Dust created by opening windows between worlds and they feed upon adults due to their connection to Dust.
The opposite of what Mrs. Coulter wants done with children. I found it difficult to picture what they looked like, but now I imagine them to be like floating rifts in the air, like tears in the veil similar to what is seen in the Dragon Age universe.
This book takes place primarily from the third-person perspective of Will, but it occasionally shifts to Lyra. There are also several chapters revolving around Lee Scoresby who makes a journey of his own to find out if Stanislaus Grumman is still alive; a man first known to travel between two worlds. I also really enjoyed the chapters and segments of the former revolving around Serafina and the other witches.
I have to say that I knew Sir Charles was Lord Boreal in this book all along, the moment she showed the snake on his arm. I wanted to hate him for stealing the alethiometer, but once I figured out the truth, did I have an even better reason to not like him.
Not only do we have a compass now, there is a knife that can cut open windows between worlds and Will becomes the new bearer of it. It seems that he has a role to play as well.
My favourite part of this book would definitely be when Will and Lyra take back the alethiometer from Boreal, and the witches rescue them from the horde of children who have accused them of killing Anjelica’s big brother; however, it was the Specters who did that deed.
Lyra then devotes herself to finding Will’s father after she gets the alethiometer, but not before she learns from a scholar that Dust and dark matter are the same. It seems the Magisterium doesn’t want to see the truth and Asriel’s actions have created a shift in the stability of Dust in the multiverse.
Now we’ve also got angels that seem to form from Dust who appear in several parts and come for Will in the end to tell him his purpose. At least we now know for sure what Lyra’s role is and it’s a pretty important one, and it’s all under a religious aspect. I will have to research it more.
I hope she doesn’t stay in the damsel in distress role for too long when I start the third book. She’s supposed to be vital to this war against whatever this Authority is, but it sounds like the Magisterium.
After I finished this book, I watched the opening theme to the HBO adaptation and now I see the Easter eggs: angel wings, windows of multiple worlds and the knife.
R.I.P Lee Scoresby, burn in hell Lord Boreal. Well done sequel, well-written with many surprising turns in the deepening lore.
👽Emily
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