Review: His Dark Materials, "The Clouded Mountain" & "The Botanic Garden" | Season 3, Episodes 7 & 8

The BBC/HBO adaptation tries to balance its stories as it navigates a complex conclusion

Photo: HBO

When I read The Amber Spyglass roughly 15 years ago, it was at the end of a “binge read.” I had been assigned The Golden Compass as part of my fantasy lit course and had devoured it, quickly ordering the subsequent books from Amazon in order to complete the series alongside my other reading for the class (and my other classes). At a time when I would often find myself reading for class late at night, nodding off as I struggled to stay on top of the assigned pages, it was joyful to discover something I was really invested in, and the story of Lyra Belacqua’s grand adventure into a world of daemons and dust was a wonderful distraction.