Rating: 
Summary: Unique and Refreshing
Review: I have to admit from the start that I've never read Paradise Lost. After reading this trilogy, though, I think I'm going to. Pullman's take on the war between Heaven and Hell is refreshing, and made me rethink a number of closely-held beliefs. I was very impressed with this book- it keeps up the action and suspense of the first two books, but doesn't keep telling the same story. It covers new ground and expands its scope without becoming totally bizarre, like so many books do several books into the series. This is one of the few series I've read that kept getting better and better the further I went. This book has all of the makings of a true epic, even the bittersweet end (think Lord of the Rings, Narnia Cycle, or Prydain Chronicles).
Rating: 
Summary: Absolutley Fabulous!
Review: This book is masterfully written, every detail was thought through to it's fullest. As you read this book, you fall in love with Will and Lyra and their exciting adventure that takes them to many different worlds, one of which is the world of the dead where Lyra, Will, Lady Salmakia, and Tailys are seperated from their daemons. The ending of this book absolutely tears your heart out, it' incredibly tear jerking and when you finish the book you think that there was a mistake-- it can't just end like that?? But it does and you feel horrible and wonderful at the same time, wising that you cold change the unfortunateevents that cause the book to end in the horrible way it does-- but no horribly bad, horribly and infinately sad. In a way, this book is like Romeo and Juliet- a masterpiece that you wish woldbe different, but yo can't change it and in some ways you feel it should be kept the same. I definately do not reccomend this book to anyone under the age of 15 because it's a little hard to handle. The writing is beatiful, the characters are lovable and the adventure is thrilling. Definately do not read this ook if you haven't read the Golden Compass or the Subtle Knife.
Rating:
Summary: Epic conclusion to a fantastic series--mindblowing depth
Review: When reading this series, I was continually surprised and amazed at the depth and scope that Pullman takes on. In this retelling of Paradise Lost, Lyra and Will go on a journey that takes them to the ends of reality and the reader loves every minute of it!This whole series is simply magnificent and the best books I've read since Dune. A good way to compare this series is a combination of Alice in Wonderland/Dune/CS Lewis. These are the best books I've read in years and am not just recommending them to all my friends, I actually purchased Golden Compass for all my friends and family for Christmas this year!
Rating:
Summary: crying wasnt enough
Review: This book was the best book in the series and the best series i have ever read in my entire lifetime... The religious and political aspects are there. I can see it and quite frankly it is those viewpionts and opinions that make this book special. The opinions are not pressed on the readers and they are not at all extreme. Most, if not all, of the younger children who will read this book will not understand the subtle political and religious aspects. Those who do see it will be smart enough to make their own conclusions and make what they will of it. There is one very strong religious point of view, I must admit. The book seems terribly anti-God. But those who read it must understand that these people are doing evil things behind the name of God and all he stands for. They say they represent God and all of his glory. This is not new and even looking back on the history of our world, there were horrible things that the church did in the name of God. Even today people are killed in the name of divine figures. This is the truth and everyone should see and know the truth, especially young readers. On the positive side, this book is phenomenal. Its two predecessors were exceptional and the ending was no disappointment at all. I refuse to give away important information, but just to let you know, you will cry. I cried throughout nearly the entire ending of the book. It was sad, yes, if that's what you're thinking. But even more so, it was a more beautiful and bittersweet ending that has yet to be bested by any book. The description and ideas are there. The drama and suspense are there. The emotion is there. The closure is there. The feeling afterwards of postivity is there.
The love diplayed is ungodly strong, so pure and so unreal. This book holds so much emotion. solace, peace, love, hatred, sadness, loneliness, and hope. You will finish this book and the series a different person.
Rating:
Summary: A Brilliant Sequel to a Sequel
Review: I am a HUGE fan of fantasy and the His Dark Materials series and this is my all-time favorite. We join Will in his search for Lyra, and after finding her, their adventures in the many Worlds. Lord Asriel is still preparing for the Great War and Mrs. Coulter begins to doubt herself and her position with the Authority. Dr. Mary Malone finds a mysterious creature race, and all of the characters find something out about themselves. As I said before, this is my ultimate favorite book and all should read it.
Rating:
Summary: WONDERFUL
Review: This was a beautifully written, wonderfully thought-out, fantastically-wrought ending to the great His Dark Materials trilogy. Luckily, I got my hands on them when all three were published, so I didn't have to wait. AND THEY'RE GREAT!!! Especially the ending of this amazing book... the sweetness... the heartwrenching agony of this is SO ENCHANTING!!!! For all fantasy fans!!!
Rating: 
Summary: (...)
Review: The series began well inviting me into a world of intrigue and fantasy, always dangling a new question ahead, tempting one further down the path. Unfortunately the final volumne, The Amber Spyglass, rattles and clunks it's way downward losing parts and pieces along the road of fantasy as if the author had created such just to bring one to a rude awakening. It arrives naked at it's final destination stripped bare of any redeeming plot or even the pretense of assuming one. It is unendurable as the book becomes a pulpit from which the author delivers his own accumulated personal payload of adolescent bile and political/religious babble. One can hear him saying "Forget the book, now that I have you this far, this is what I really wanted to say." It's like watching the window roll down as the car rolls to a stop and the gentleman inside does his sweetly perverted best to lure children within reach of his dark and subtle grasp. This isn't a children's fantasy trilogy. It's literary molestation.
Rating:
Summary: Pullman - thinking man's silver mountain
Review: Here we are at an end of Phillip Pullman's surprising trilogy. Whew! A sigh of relief that I can get back to normal life.
Pullman is what "they" call "spellbinding" in "their" more hackneyed moments. But he's more than that. Like most good authors he doesn't fit into a preprepared box. This is not fantasy of the Tolkeinesque variety. It is not children's writing (although clever kids could well love it more than Potter). What we can say is this: it's a clever man, who's widely read, and a brilliant story teller, making an honest tale about big stuff. (Theology meets physics: Fritjof Capra's Tao of Physics meets John Milton: its an ugly soundbite but gives something of the flavour.) Its deceptively challenging stuff because beneath the excellent story lies a theology...far from "simply" mystic as some people seem to complain. Much more rigorous (although would you really complain that, say, St Francis wasn't rigorous?), along the style of C.S.Lewis's Last Battle where the children find themselves in heaven - and then find out they are dead, but less Catholic and therefore (theologically speaking) less successful. The tyranny of the God of Paradise Lost is a line taken by a famous critic called Empson, Pullman runs away with it. He wants to kill the God of the church(es) and maintian mysticism. It's a worthy aspiration. The solution is to make God not God (ie not what we define him as - omnipotent, omniscient, eternal etc.) and therefore make something else logically prior to God. For Pullmann this is a form of collective (un?)consciousness married to the environment (although he cleverly avoids animal rights by makin this consciousness a form of self-consciousness). I'm going on too much. I don't want to put anyone off - you can read it as you would any cracking read. But if you want maybe that gives you a hint of what you could try and think about?
Rating: 
Summary: The Cracked Amber Spyglass
Review: The Amber Spyglass was a dismal conclusion to Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. I am desperately trying to make sense of what I read. Pullman went off on too many tangents in this finale - Balthamos and Baruch; the mulefa (huh??), Metatron; the senile "Authority"; the love story between Will and Lyra, the flow of the Dust or Sraf into the netherworld; Instead of tying together loose ends, Pullman introduces too many unrelated and ridiculous elements which greatly detract from the initial story's credibility. The finale fails in that it
introduces and then unsuccessfully tries to address too many gargantuan themes. I would have just been content with a thorough and plausible explanation of Dust and its relation to the Subtle Knife.
Rating:
Summary: ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS EVER WRITTEN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Review: When I first ordered this book I wasnt sure what it would be like because none of the people I knew had ever read it.
I bought it because of all the reviews I read. It seem to good to be true, so I ordered it and I could not belive how good it was. If you liked Harry Potter or The Lord of the Rings you are going to loooove this series!!!!!!! belive me.
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