The Amber Spyglass
Whitbread Book of the Year 2001 — the first children's book ever to take the overall prize — and the most theologically audacious bestseller in the YA canon; the trilogy's capstone and lightning rod alike.
Book Entry · Fantasy
What is The King of Elfland's Daughter about?
The parliament of Erl, wanting a magic lord, sends young Alveric across the twilight border to wed Lirazel, the King of Elfland's daughter. She comes to the fields we know, fails to learn to worship the stars correctly, and is recalled by a rune; Alveric's mad quest after her, and Elfland's slow tidal return to swallow Erl, fill the rest of this most beautiful of fantasy novels. Dunsany's prose — wistful, ironic, drenched in twilight — makes the borderland between mundane and magic into the book's true subject.
Why it matters
One of the acknowledged masterpieces of pre-Tolkien fantasy, a direct influence on Le Guin, Gaiman (Stardust is its godchild) and the entire fairy-borderland tradition.
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