The Republic of Heaven

I first read Northern Lights over 3 years ago, loved it, and immediately started reading The Subtle Knife. For reasons I'm still unsure of, I stopped reading it a couple of chapters in. However, I finally got round to reading TSK whilst on holiday this year, and upon returning home, immediately started on The Amber Spyglass. I finished reading TAS 2 days ago now. I then set out to find an online community to talk about the books with, and stumbled upon Kingdom of Heaven, and therefore this place. I've spent a couple of days reading posts on these boards. Including reading all 61 pages of the "Did Lyra and Will have sex" thread. And for the record, I don't think they did. Their love was so perfect and complete, that I don't think they needed to in my mind, and so that's what I'm sticking to.

From what I've read, I'm pretty sure that just about everyone who read HDM found the ending of it to be touching, and overall quite sad. In a way I've never been affected by a book before, I really did find the ending to be heart wrenching. It was as if I was the one who was being torn apart from the other. It's an incredible feeling that made me realise something:

It made me realise how, quite brilliantly, PP had made me care deeply for the characters (Will and Lyra). And I hadn't even seen it coming. There is always emotional attachments to characters in stories, yes - it's the sign of a good writer, but to be this affected by the actions and events surrounding two characters was something completely new to me, and as I said, completely unexpected as well.

I believe it comes from the feeling you get from reading HDM, as the characters grow up before your eyes, and you see what is happening, that Will and Lyra's love is, if ever there was, THE perfect love. Which of course makes the end of TAS even more tragic. Here was the very embodiment of love, being torn apart. Although it is clear they will always love each other, and in that way, always be faithful to each other. Personally, it took me a day or so to get around the confused-stomach-tightened feeling I had after finishing TAS. And that may very well sound stupid, but I don't know how else to explain what I felt.

But PP does offer us two crumbs of optimism for the future, in regards to Will and Lyra's being apart:

1. The fact that they will be together for eternity after they die, thanks to the window that has been left open from the land of the dead. For some reason, this doesn't really "comfort" me in anyway. The fact is that they have to wait for the rest of their lives to be together. In relation to eternity, this is nothing, but to mere mortals, a lifetime is the longest possible time imaginable. And we know for sure that Will will live for at least another 60 years, and probably for much longer.

2. The possibility of being able to travel as angels do, between worlds. With the huge steps Mary has already taken towards the end of TAS, it doesn't seem unreasonable to think that given 10/20 years, Will could be able to use this method of travel, and to visit Lyra in her world. When I thought about this, it actually made me optimistic for their future.

The HDM trilogy, and especially TAS, turns out to be an incredible journey and adventure, with an incredibly sad, yet brilliant ending. If had been done any other way, I don't think HDM would have been anywhere near as hard-hitting or memorable. And it leaves us with many moving moments, the final talk at the bench (“As long as I live...")

I'm also staying clear from posting in the Mark Reads topics for now; I really want to re-read the entire trilogy from start to finish, so don't really feel I can jump in and comment on things that aren't fresh in my mind. For example, I completely forgot that todays chapter (chapter 6) even existed!