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Summary: Fitting ending to a wholly original series
Review: Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series is a young adult series that niether talks down to its audience nor lessen its grand scope because of it. The Amber Spyglass, while the slowest paced of the series continues to stay true to the characters and their belief in a girl's power to change the course of history. The tension of the first to books is present in the first half of the book. The gathering rebellion against the Almighty swells to bursting points and characters that were scattered about various worlds are drawn together again. That Lyra is left helpless in the hands of Mrs. Couther and that beings from all corners are swarming in upon their hiding place makes the reader wanting how she will escape. The book loses steam, ironically just as its climax is about to shape in the war that has been building up in the previous two volumes. Characters emerge and fade out. Situations are set up so fast and their result often ambiguous through the lack of detail such as with a bomb incident. The title amber spyglass itself is not an object of fascination such as the altheometer or the subtle knife and the spyglass' creator Mary plays a much larger role but her actions are almost incidental and not as satisfying once everyone comes together in the end. These are minor quibbles in an otherwise great set of books. Pullman's re-telling of 'Paradise Lost' is engaging, provoking, and wholly original.
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Summary: The Amber Spyglass Review By Myles
Review: Have you ever wanted adventure and action put together? Well if you do, you would read the Amber Spyglass. This book is connected to two other books: The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife. The Amber Spyglass is the third book of His Dark Materials Series. (...). I enjoyed reading The Amber Spyglass because it has adventure, action and fantasy in it. This book has two main characters in it: Lyra and Will. (...) My favorite part is when Lyra meets her old friend Roger who was ghost, Will went to see his dad (...). I can not relate this book because it has its own story unlike any other story. It has its own two books with stories about how this got started. I would reccomend this book ages 10 and up. This is also reccomended to 5th graders and up. The Amber Spyglass is intense and diffucult. It has hard vocabulary to pronounce, and this book is long and thick and has over 500 pages. This book is hard for little ones and is a very good book for people who likes fantasy.
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Summary: Everyone read this book!!!!
Review: I loved the Golden Compass and the Subtle Knife so much that the day I got this final installation was like Christmas. It's so amazing. I'm not going to summarize the plot because it's so full of twists and turns I'd be afraid to spoil it for you. Seriously, read it. You will not be sorry. Oh, and you might want to read it in private. Next to a box of tissues.
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Summary: A sequel of all time.
Review: Similar to books such as Harry Potter, Phillip Pullman has pulled another extraordinary book. With adventures of Lyra and Will through the worlds and expditing issues we have in this world, I highly recommend you to read this book. =].
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Summary: Daring, Ambitious...And Falls Short
Review: I'll be the first to admit Pullman's trilogy is fantastic, but more on the merits of the first two books than the resolution in this disappointing novel. Obviously, if you're hooked on the first two, it's a must read, but Pullman set too many goals, established too many expectations which fall flat. A similiar problem occurs in his Sally Lockhart trilogy--he is adept at creating such peril, such need in a reader, that it is impossible to create an ending that can satisfy. The problem here is that most of the promises made are either forgotten or diminished *SPOILER ALERT!* Mary is said to be the tempter, the means of luring Lyra to do that which the church fears (becoming a sort of "Eve")...but Mary does nothing that influences them, and even the Amber Spyglass does nothing that affects the outcome of the story. Mary's entire journey is ultimately pointless, and wastes valuable time. Lyra too is supposed to be an "Eve" but nothing happens. Characters come and go and are forgotten. Issues are started and, when Pullman realizes they're going nowhere, left to fall flat. So many questions are left unanswered. Instead of meeting those urgent emotional needs created by the first two books, The Amber Spyglass loses its focus, becomes a preachy diatribe of an agnostic's dislike of organized religion, and, in the end, nothing is really changed from the beginning. A letdown, but not enough to avoid reading the book. I hope Pullman visits this world again and, perhaps, allow his editor to help out a little more next time.
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Summary: Joint Review of His Joint Materials
Review: The point of departure for this truly creative fantasy/parallel worlds trilogy is an inversion of Milton's Paradise Lost. In the latter, Milton presented a poetic account and justification of the divine plan for the Universe. In Pullman's books, the Miltonic version is a distorted view of real events. In the Universe created by Pullman, a powerful angelic force, the Authority, claimed power over the previously created Universe and has been abusing this power for millennia to keep humanity (and other sentient species) in a form of bondage. This bondage ramifies throughout an virtually infinite number of parallel worlds. This trilogy describes a revolt against the Authority and its overthrow. The principle characters are 2 children, one from our world and one from a closely related parallel world with mixed features of the 20th century and Victorian Europe. The initial plot strand concerns efforts to understand a mysterious component of the Universe called Dust or Dark Energy. The following complicated plot is essentially a coming of age story as the two children encounter many exotic features of their and related worlds. The plot incorporates elements of Paradise Lost and the Garden of Eden myth.
The quality of writing in these books is superb. A host of interesting characters and high quality prose. Pullman's imagination is remarkable. He has essentially developed a whole new mythology incorporating elements of modern science, religious allegory, and modern history. Perhaps the only flaw is that he may have packed too much into the final and concluding book of the trilogy, which is an interesting compound of Armageddon, Ragnorak, and the Garden of Eden story.
These books have produced some controversy as some feel that they are anti-religious, even specifically anti-Christian. Pullman has denied this interpretation and suggested that the books are an allegorical attack on all forms of dogmatism and authoritarianism. This disclaimer seems disingenuous. One thing that Pullman very clearly attacks is the idea that there is a separate soul distinct from the body. An important and at times poetically presented component of these books is the idea that humans are an intrinsic, not separate component, of the natural world. Pullman actually presents a pantheistic view of the world with consciousness an immanent and emergent part of the natural world and humans (and other sentients) as particular extensions of this aspect of the natural world. He also allegorically criticizes human attempts to overwhelmingly control the natural world. Whatever he states, these views are a trenchant criticism of any world view resting on the idea of separate and eternal souls.
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Summary: Brilliant emotional and philosophical Trio
Review: I am so utterly in love with the HDM triology. From the moment I picked up "The Golden Compass" I was attached to the hip. Friends and lovers had to pry the book from my hands because it was supper time.
Pullman is a writer that I easily took to. Every paragraph was so clean and crisp. The way he describes the children, the adults and especially the daemons (people's soul perse) is breathtaking.
I love Philip so much for this masterpiece!!!!
Rating: 
Summary: Diminishing returns
Review: I read the HDM Trilogy in one go and enjoyed it. Sadly however, the quality and inventiveness decreases from book to book, whilst the preachiness increases. I found much of the material in The Amber Spyglass to be boring, contrived or unconvincing. For example, the Mulefa are rather silly and trite. They don't really add much to the story and Mary is a little pointless as a charcter, despite supposedly have a big role to play. The visit to the land of the dead is overlong and the relationship between Lyra and Will just doesn't seem real. These are 12-13 year olds after all. In the end, Pullman is a good storyteller, bu no Milton.
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Summary: The Amber Spyglass
Review: The Amber Spyglass Dell Yearling, 2002, 518 pp., $6.50
Philip Pullman ISBN 0-440-41856-9 "Leave me alone! I want to go! Let me go! Will, Will, help me-oh, help me-." Lyra and Will, two courageous young individuals finish the thrilling adventures started in the first two books: The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife. These young adventurers travel through many worlds taking on the adventure that would change everything. Lyra's father is planning a war that would determine the future of every world and the witches have a prophecy that Lyra and Will will play a very important role.
The Amber Spyglass is a book filled with trust, betrayal, love, and danger. Philip Pullman makes this story so real that I was actually witnessing it right before my eyes. I wasn't just watching it, I felt like I was part of the book and played one of the main roles. The author creates realistic dialogue, sets a good pace, and makes the story very visual.
The Amber Spyglass is an exciting, grabbing, and serious. I recommend this book to any person that loves adventure and becoming part of the story.
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Summary: A damn good read.
Review: The last time a book moved me, it was Dostoyevski's "Crime and Punishment". It is in the nature of good books to change the way one thinks about things. And I have changed because of this book. It is hard to express, these changes. But they are there all the same.
Perhaps its Pullman's language, for most part, there is an elegance here which I thought I have missed and never knew. There is also the time taken to describe places and people, so crisp and penetrating that I could easily see them in my mind's eye. All of this combine to make even his least important characters a gem to treasure, a friend to hold close to your heart. More than anything, Pullman managed to show me how much I have changed over the years and how little.
I cursed fate when heaven and hell and everything in between conspired to allow only one portal between the worlds to be kept open. You will know what I am talking about when you get to the end of the third book. And I know you will fee the same. Yes, the book has changed me and I am greatful.
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