Rating: 
Summary: One of the Best books I have ever read
Review: I am personally amazed to read some of the reviews of people saying how they did not enjoy this book. The Amber Spyglass is one of those rare books these days that you cannot put down. From the first page to the last it is filled with everything that readers of Philip Pullman's other two novels in this series have come to expect and enjoy, such as the sly way Mrs. Coulter always get things done(later in the book he shows a rather surprising and unexpected aspect of her personality), Lyra and her almost innocent and yet grown up way of looking at all she encounters, and Will and his strength to do what needs to be done. Other characters also make a return apperance such as the witch Serafina Pekkala, Lord Asriel, Iorek Brynison, Mary Malone, and perhaps a few that no one would expect to be able to make a return. Pullman does make many world changes in this book, and introduces new characters, new creatures while further explaining both Lyra's and Will's destinies as well as those of everyone that they have encountered in a very pleasing and clean manner that should me very satisified. I was however saddened by the ending, perhaps in part because of part of what was required to make this ending as clean and a wonderful as it was and perhaps because it is the end of the series and the adventures of Will and Lyra have been cleanly ended within this novel. Overall it was a very excellent if not somewhat abrupt end to the series. What helps make The Amber Spyglass so special and unique are the challenges that Will and Lyra face throughout the book, including perhaps the hardest challenge they or anyone would ever have to face near the end. These challenges take many forms, and help the characters to explore more about both themselves and each other. They learn some of the secerts of the witches, and more both about Dust and Lord Asriel's 'war.' I can truly say that it is possible to see the very last choice that is almost forced on Will and Lyra to be sad for both of them and yet in a way happy for seeing them make the difficult choice they have to make. I have no hesitation in saying that in this book much as in the others it is the very challenges and the familiar topics, such as Dust, the Oblation Board, and the idea of the many worlds that are linked through the doorways that were shown to exist in The Subtle Knife, which help to make this book the one that you cannot put down once you have started reading Chapter One. Personally, I have only one regret about this book and that is the way in which it was ended leaves little chance for Pullman to take an chance and bring these characters back in another book. The ending does leave the option, but it is a small one. Overall I highly recommend this book and if you are unsure after reading some of the reviews that say otherwise about this book, I simply encourage you to read it and choose for yourself which type of book you believe it to be. Though personally I feel that you will find as I have Philip Pullman helps to make this as good as the The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife, and perhaps the best in the His Dark Materials Series.
Rating:
Summary: Very Unusual
Review: Weired... interesting..but very powerful. I believe this is one of those books that made me not only think, but also regret that i dont have to think about anything anymore. The end was unexpected, maybe this is why it was so good. It wasnt a typical end, and that is what gave this book a different note. To read three long books and to be dissapointed is not right, and these books are not for any taste; but if you happen to get interested in them, I garantee you an unique and amazing experience.
Rating: 
Summary: An Unfortunate End to a Promising Start
Review: It doesn't please me to give this book 3 stars, especially after reading the previous 2 novels in the trilogy. Like many of the 3 starred reviews, I was offended by the portrayal of God in the novel as a withered non-entity and of Christianity as a "mistake" gone too long. However, my sense of offense has subsided somewhat because the God Pullman has drawn is so out of touch with the God I know that it is possible to see this as an ineffectual deity. Like another reviewer said I believe Pullman doesn't have the courage to really write God as he is and instead created this being. The last part of the novel redeems the book. It returns to the roots of the beginning of the series however it is hard to ignore the mess that occurs in the middle third of the novel. Moreover, Pullman doesn't suggest anything new to replace the defrauded Church. The angel Xanthippe simply suggests that people should be nicer and less cruel, but what's the motive behind that if the after life only results in oblivion. Like others have also mentioned, Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter's personality change made no sense. Lord Asriel in particular was depicted as ambitious, cruel, and cold-hearted towards Lyra in the first 2 novels. How did he turn into this self-less person? There's much to dislike but if you have read the 1st 2 books you should read this one.
Rating:
Summary: exiting,courages, yet rather romantic
Review: I loved this book! From the dangerous adventures of Lyra to the evils of Marisa Coulter, it was a wonderful story. My favorite part was when Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter went to kill the evil angel and they told each other of their love for one and other. When Asriel kissed her and she said she felt as soft and light as when Lyra has been conceved 13 years ago I got a good feeling in my head. I wish their was a fourth , fifth , sixth,etc.in the series.
Rating:
Summary: Pullman is a mastermind
Review: What an excellent book, what a creative mind. The trilogy has somewhat of a slow beginning in Golden Compass. After reading the Golden Compass a year ago, it felt too slow and dark for my taste and I didn't pick up the Subtle Knife until last week. It gets much much better with the Subtle Knife and the Amber Spyglass. I read both books in 2 weeks. I give the trilogy 5 stars because Pullman became a candidate to be a member of the Tolkien and C.S. Lewis club with these books. Original, creative, fast paced (the last 2 books), just keeps your heart pounding till the end. One needs to have an open-mind about religion, creation, and the origins of the universe in order to thoroughly enjoy this series. Once again, excellent job Pullman!
Rating:
Summary: WOW!
Review: This book was amazing! It made me cry but it was great! I would recommend it highly to all mature readers. It's an awesome story and beautifully told but very dark. Read the first 2 in the series first. They will fill a lot of gaps.
Rating: 
Summary: Very Shabby. I was disappointed.
Review: This book left me very disappointed. It dragged on and on. Phillip Pullman had so much potential, but he threw it all down the drain. Personally, I feel that Will ruined the story. Lyra was a solid enough character, and many of my friends, both boys and girls, thought that Pantalaimon was enough of a male influence to suffice. I was particularily disappointed when they abandoned Pantalaimon. He was my favorite character, and I was ready to stop reading once he was gone. Also, it was very rude of Will to just jump on Lyra and start kissing her. Now that was disgusting.
Rating:
Summary: Anti-Christian diatribe
Review: The Amber Spyglass (part three of a series that begins with The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife) is engaging, witty and imaginative, and features some very likeable characters. Unfortunately, the world-view is sophomoric and blatantly anti-Christian. In The Golden Compass we follow Lyra Belacqua in her seemingly orphaned romps around Oxford. It doesn't take long to realize that this Oxford is not our Oxford - not that I've ever been there in any event - meaning that Lyra's Oxford is in another world, where some things are the same and some are very different. The most striking difference in Lyra's world is that everyone has a daemon, which is a kind of Id/familiar/pet. Until a child is grown, the daemon can change shape at will - a mouse one moment, a tiger the next - but it takes a definite form somewhere around adolescence, and the fixed form of the daemon is some kind of reflection of the inner self of the ... what, host? Owner? .... Whatever. Of course I was disappointed that these creatures were called "daemons." Why mar a perfectly good book - for so I regarded it at first - with this unnecessary association? I should have trusted my instincts. The author's anti-Christian biases pick up steam throughout The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife. We learn pretty soon that he doesn't like the church, but since "the church" of Lyra's world is not our church (in fact, Calvin had won the 16th century contest of ideologies in Lyra's world), I was willing to look past most of that. There were some strange metaphysics thrown into the story, but hey, this is fantasy, you gotta expect that. Mid-way through The Amber Spyglass Mr. Pullman shows his true colors. He doesn't only hate the church. He hates God - or "The Authority" as he prefers to call him. In Pullman's universe, matter decided to become self-aware about 30,000 years ago (we're never told how such silliness could happen), and The Authority was merely the first conscious being. He then decided to try to deceive all the other creatures into believing that he was the creator and force them to do his bidding. (Satan and his lot are cast as freedom-loving rebels, sorta like Han, Luke and Obi-Wan.) The heroes of the story are those who decide to cast off The Authority's yoke and make war upon him, finally ridding the universe - that is, all the multiple worlds of the series - of this heavenly tyrant. The "good guys" are nuns who broke their vows, little girls who lie incessantly and fallen angels. Mr. Pullman portrays all of this as very healthy and reasonable because "The Authority" is a dreadful fellow. It goes without saying that his church makes life miserable for everyone, but even his promises of pie in the sky are hollow. The dead, both the just and the unjust, are doomed to a miserable half existence, bereft of hope, tormented by harpies - who were put there by The Authority for precisely that purpose. (Those familiar with early Christian heresies might recall the Gnostics and their Demiurge - the evil, spiteful pretender to the divine throne.) Pullman's "Authority," which he links to the God of Christianity, is a demented, vindictive angelic being that the universe is certainly better without. But such calumny isn't good enough for Pullman. In the end he portrays God as a decrepit, doddering, senile old Bubble Boy who has to be carted around in a crystal cage and protected from the slightest puff of breeze. In place of God, Pullman has Dust. In George Lucas' world it might be "the force." This childish, simple-minded pantheism is supposed to liberate everyone from the horrible mistake of Christianity. (One of his hero characters says, "I thought physics could be done to the glory of God, till I saw there wasn't any God at all and that physics was more interesting anyway. The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all.") So how does Pullman's pantheism fix things? Well, for example, the comforting solution for those miserable souls in The Authority's underworld is to dissipate out into the cosmos once again and become one with everything. Gee, that's just what I always wanted. Pullman seems upset that Christianity teaches that we're sinners. I don't know what Pullman's religious beliefs are, but from the babble in these books we might suspect some form of ala carte Buddism. If so, his complaint against the Christian doctrine of sin seems out of place because the eastern religions teach a far more distressing view of human nature. We're not real individuals with a problem, they say. Rather, everything that we think of as "ourselves" is just an illusion that has to be "overcome" by "enlightenment," which is sorta like that dissolving into the cosmos thing the dead are supposed to be oh-so-glad of. For myself, I'd rather be a real person with a sin nature, thank you very much, then a nothing that is deceived into believing it is a something. If Pullman's ideas were presented systematically in a philosophy class you'd laugh and move on to the next chapter. The danger of fantasy (as with science fiction) is that you have to suspend some of your critical faculties to enjoy the story, and then, while your guard is down, Pullman strikes his low blow. I'm not going to tell you more about the book because, as I said, it is an engaging, interesting story, and I don't want you to read it. So don't be deceived by positive reviews. (I regret to say that I gave The Golden Compass a thumb's up.) Avoid this series altogether. It's a sophomoric anti-Christian diatribe, but dangerous precisely because it is packaged as a fun series of books for young adults.
Rating:
Summary: THE explanation of the "Authority" as given by Pullman
Review: I see that most of the 1 star reviews are because people have problems with Pullman's anti-God ideas. And, I am guessing, by a certain event that happens to God. I would like to share with all of you exactly what God is involved here. Pullman didn't commit this act upon 'God' - he did it upon the Authority, and Pullman once talked about people in African/Asian countries who beat people and say it is 'God's' will, and he takes them at their word and in response says that 'God' deserves what happens to him in this book. He didn't do this to God as Christians know him, but the essence of God, which makes misguided people believe that 'God' wants them to punish people for their 'sins'.
He didn't act upon God, just the part of him that is kept alive by religious-maniacs' beliefs. I hope this clears problems up. Please remember that the Church in these books is NOT the Roman Catholic Church as you all know it. Read this book, but remember what is REALLY happening. (Oh, I AM a Christian, and this book's content did not bother me in the least.)
Rating:
Summary: A book for closure, not much else
Review: The blast of The Golden Compass, the weave of The Subtle Knife, both wonderful books, were truely the only things keeping me hooked to The Amber Spyglass. Although interesting, and at times touching, the ending was a dissapointment. The book somehow, held no edge for me. The theology and the adventure at times seemed akward, badly joind together. Characters that could have been amplified, explained and enriched were ignored and shelfed. Will's daemon was simply there, nothing else. I, personally, had been waiting for a character, all we got was a cat with a voice. The book leaves you hanging a bit, but not wanting to continue. My advice is read it, then make up your own ending.
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