The Amber Spyglass
Chapters - Philip Pullman
Chapter 1: The Enchanted Sleeper
Mrs Coulter hides in a Himalayan cave with her drugged, sleeping daughter Lyra, telling the local villager girl Ama that Lyra is under an enchanter's spell. She keeps Lyra unconscious with a potion while tending to her with a disturbing mixture of genuine tenderness and calculated control. Meanwhile, Lyra dreams of the world of the dead, where Roger's ghost pleads for her help.
POV: Mrs Coulter·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, Roger Parslow, Ama, Ozymandias
Chapter 2: Balthamos and Baruch
Will commands two angels, Balthamos and Baruch, to help him find Lyra rather than go directly to Lord Asriel. He discovers the knife can cut into many different worlds and learns to feel the resonance that indicates matching ground levels. Baruch departs to fly to Lord Asriel with urgent intelligence about the Authority and Metatron, while Balthamos remains with Will, who enters Lyra's world to track her down.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Balthamos, Baruch, Metatron, Roger Parslow·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua, Lord Asriel, Lord Boreal, Serafina Pekkala
Chapter 3: Scavengers
Serafina Pekkala flies to Svalbard to tell Iorek Byrnison of Lee Scoresby's death, and the bear-king finds and honours his fallen comrade's body. Iorek announces he must lead his bears south to find ice in the high mountains, as the Arctic is melting. A cliff-ghast overhears garbled news of these events from a fox it catches.
POV: Serafina Pekkala·On page: Iorek Byrnison, Lee Scoresby, Roger Parslow·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua
Chapter 4: Ama and the Bats
Ama visits a monastery healer and obtains a powder to wake Lyra from her enchanted sleep. Returning secretly to the cave, she hides and witnesses Mrs Coulter forcibly drugging Lyra back to sleep, and her golden monkey daemon cruelly tearing apart a bat. Ama now knows the woman has been lying and resolves to wake the girl herself.
On page: Mrs Coulter, Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, Roger Parslow, Ama, Ozymandias
Chapter 5: The Adamant Tower
At his basalt fortress, Lord Asriel confers with his spy captain Lord Roke about the Church's interest in Lyra, learning that the Consistorial Court and the Society of the Holy Spirit are both hunting for her. The wounded angel Baruch arrives and reveals that the Authority has retired and Metatron now rules as Regent, before dying from his injuries. Lord Asriel dispatches gyropters and orders his alethiometrist to pinpoint Lyra's location.
POV: Lord Asriel·On page: Baruch, Lord Roke, Roger Parslow, Stelmaria·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua, Will Parry, Metatron
Chapter 6: Pre-emptive Absolution
The Consistorial Court of Discipline hears Fra Pavel's testimony that Lyra is the new Eve whose fall could determine the fate of all worlds. President Father MacPhail sends the young priest Father Gomez, armed with pre-emptive absolution, to find and kill Lyra. The Chevalier Tialys and Lady Salmakia, Gallivespian spies for Lord Asriel, observe these plans and report them.
On page: Fra Pavel, Father Gomez, Father MacPhail, Lady Salmakia, Chevalier Tialys, Roger Parslow·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua, Mrs Coulter, Mary Malone
Chapter 7: Mary, Alone
Mary Malone follows the I Ching's guidance through the world of Cittagazze and finds a window into a new world of vast prairies and enormous trees. She encounters the mulefa, intelligent wheeled creatures who use giant seedpods as wheels, and they welcome her warmly, offering her a ride to their settlement.
POV: Mary Malone·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua
Chapter 8: Vodka
Will and Balthamos travel through Lyra's world, stopping at a village where a priest plies Will with vodka, and then reaching a riverside town where armoured bears are in a standoff with the townsfolk. Will faces down the bear-king by cutting his iron helmet to pieces with the subtle knife, and discovers that the bear is Iorek Byrnison himself, who agrees to carry Will upriver toward Lyra.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Iorek Byrnison, Balthamos·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua, Lee Scoresby
Chapter 9: Upriver
Will and Iorek Byrnison travel upriver by steamer toward the Himalayas, and Will demonstrates the knife's power to cut between worlds. Meanwhile, both Lord Asriel's gyropters under King Ogunwe and the Church's zeppelins race toward Lyra's cave, each knowing the other is also closing in. The Gallivespian spies Tialys and Salmakia are secretly aboard the Church's lead zeppelin.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Iorek Byrnison, King Ogunwe, Chevalier Tialys, Lady Salmakia·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua, Lee Scoresby, Lord Asriel
Chapter 10: Wheels
Father Gomez tracks Mary Malone through Cittagazze, learning about her from the children there. Mary, now living among the mulefa, learns their language and culture, discovering their deep relationship with the wheel-pod trees, and witnesses their settlement attacked and devastated by the tualapi, giant predatory swan-like birds.
POV: Mary Malone·On page: Father Gomez·Mentioned: Ama
Chapter 11: The Dragonflies
Will and Iorek reach the valley near Lyra's cave, where they meet Ama, who tells them about the drugged girl and Mrs Coulter's deception. Will visits the cave, sees Lyra asleep, and speaks with Mrs Coulter, who tries to charm him, but he recognises her lies. He plans a night rescue while Ama prepares the waking powder, and distant zeppelins approach.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Iorek Byrnison, Mrs Coulter, Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, Chevalier Tialys, Lady Salmakia, Balthamos, Ama, Ozymandias
Chapter 12: The Break
Will and Ama enter Mrs Coulter's cave through a window cut into another world to rescue Lyra, but Mrs Coulter wakes and Will's thoughts of his mother cause the subtle knife to shatter. Ama administers the waking powder to Lyra as a battle erupts outside between the Church's Swiss Guard and Lord Asriel's African troops. The Gallivespian spies Tialys and Salmakia arrive and sting Mrs Coulter, creating a standoff.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Mrs Coulter, Pantalaimon, Iorek Byrnison, Balthamos, Ama, Ozymandias
Chapter 13: Tialys and Salmakia
Will, Lyra, and the Gallivespian spies Tialys and Salmakia escape the cave through a window into another world, leaving Mrs Coulter crying out for her daughter. Balthamos briefly intervenes but flees in terror, and Will is forced to shoot a Swiss Guard soldier. Lyra reunites with the alethiometer and tells Will about her dream of Roger in the land of the dead, and they resolve to go there together.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Mrs Coulter, Pantalaimon, Balthamos, Chevalier Tialys, Lady Salmakia, Ozymandias·Mentioned: Roger Parslow, Ama
Chapter 14: Know What It Is
Lyra and Will find Iorek Byrnison in the mountains and ask him to mend the broken knife. After Lyra consults the alethiometer, which warns that the knife is dangerous but should be repaired, Iorek reluctantly agrees. The alethiometer also reveals that the journey to the world of the dead may cost them their lives, but they resolve to go anyway.
POV: Lyra Belacqua·On page: Will Parry, Iorek Byrnison, Pantalaimon·Mentioned: Lee Scoresby
Chapter 15: The Forge
Iorek Byrnison forges the broken knife back together with the help of Will and Lyra, who must hold the blade's structure in their minds during the process. Afterward, Iorek tells Will he fears what the knife can do, and Will confesses his plan to visit the world of the dead to find Lyra's friend Roger and his own father.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Iorek Byrnison, Pantalaimon
Chapter 16: The Intention Craft
In the Adamant Tower, Lord Asriel holds a war council with King Ogunwe, the angel Xaphania and the Gallivespian Lord Roke, weighing their forces against the Authority and the Kingdom of Heaven. Mrs Coulter, brought to the Tower as a prisoner, is taken to see one of Asriel's intention crafts - a flying machine steered by thought alone. She seizes her chance, masters the craft by will and escapes into the air, flying off alone with Lord Roke hidden aboard.
POV: Mrs Coulter·On page: Lord Asriel, Father MacPhail, Lord Roke, Ozymandias, Stelmaria·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua
Chapter 17: Oil and Lacquer
Mary Malone constructs a spyglass from sap lacquer that allows her to see Dust, which the mulefa call sraf. The mulefa gather to tell her that their world is dying because the wheel-pod trees have been sickening for three hundred years, and they ask her to find the cause and a cure. Meanwhile, Father Gomez continues tracking Mary through Cittagazze.
POV: Mary Malone·On page: Father Gomez
Chapter 18: The Suburbs of the Dead
Will and Lyra begin following the knife toward the world of the dead, passing through a world where they meet the ghost of a recently killed man. They join a procession of ghosts walking along a fading road toward a dismal shore town, the gateway to the land of the dead, where the Gallivespian spies scout ahead.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, Chevalier Tialys, Lady Salmakia
Chapter 19: Lyra and her Death
Lyra and Will reach the holding area for the living near the land of the dead, where they learn that everyone carries a personal death with them. Lyra confronts the Chevalier Tialys's objections and summons her own death to guide them. They learn they must leave their daemons behind to cross the lake, and Lyra's death agrees to lead them.
POV: Lyra Belacqua·On page: Will Parry, Pantalaimon, Chevalier Tialys, Lady Salmakia
Chapter 20: Climbing
Mary Malone climbs into the canopy of the giant trees using ropes and pulleys, and discovers through her spyglass that the Dust is flowing outward in a current against the wind, failing to fertilise the upward-facing flowers and explaining the trees' decline. Father Gomez finds the window into Mary's world and begins tracking her there.
POV: Mary Malone·On page: Father Gomez