Enjoyable.

This is the third and last book in the His Dark Materials trilogy (after Northern Lights, or The Golden Compass in the US, and The Subtle Knife).

This volume starts just where the previous left off: after the conflagration on the hills near Cittàgazze, Lyra is nowhere to be found. Looking for her, Will meets two Angels, Balthamos and Baruch, who urge him to bring the Subtle Knife to Lord Asriel. He promises to help them, as soon as he's recued Lyra.

Lyra is actually in another world, where Mrs. Coulter is keeping her asleep with drugs, and telling the local population that she's a holy woman and that she's trying to heal Lyra, so as to be left alone and unquestioned. Soon though, with the help of a little village girl named Ama and of two tiny spies in the service of Lord Asriel, Gallivespians known as the Chevalier Tialys and the Lady Salmakia, Will finds her again and saves her.

But now the most dangerous part of the journey begins, because both children want to go to the Land of the Dead, to make amends and try to rescue Roger and Will's father.

As for Dr. Mary Malone, who crossed into Cittàgazze and then in yet another world, she meets a strange people called the Mulefa. Living with them for some time, she finally learns their language, make friends and discover they also know about sraf, the Shadow particles she was studying in her laboratory, or what Lyra calls Dust. She'll build a spyglass to see sraf and understansd its purpose.

Meanwhile, Father Gomez, an emissary of the Church, is on a Holy mission to kill Lyra, to prevent her from committing the original sin again.

I still don't know what to think of these books. The story is sometimes very moving, with some heart-wrenching passages, but the rest is sometimes dull and not very believable. I didn't think this final book tied up all loose ends either. It was enjoyable, but I wouldn't call His Dark Materials my favourite series.

7/10