Rating: 
Summary: A beautiful read
Review: The Amber Spyglass is a fitting end to His Dark Materials. yet it manages to be so much more than just an adventure story. It draws heavily from Paradise Lost, but the point of view given is all its own. The book is also very beautiful at times, with a grandeur in its theme that lights up the whole book (and the series). One reviewer called the theme of the book its main weakness. I would like to present the opposite view. The major theme is that Judeo-Christian values are always questionable as to their effects and validity(not their intent). While the religion may not be meant a certain way (I am pretty sure pacifist Christ never wanted wars fought in his name) it is always distorted by believers. This is the main danger of organized religion as shown by the Amber Spyglass. One may say that religion can be so much more in people's lives, but only if that person is willing to accept a faith without evidence because it makes him 'feel better'. When the Amber Spyglass shows us this picture of organized religion, you may call it a 'straw man' and say that the book doesn't prove or disprove its theme, simply asserts it. Unfortunately it is very difficult to prove a theme that applies to our world without real historical examples, and in a fantasy world that's not possible. If the author makes up a history, it is just that- a made-up history to reinforce the point. What one may do is draw real parallels with our world and Pullman accomplishes this rather well (has anyone wondered about Lyra's church? It could be our church, if our church still had the same power it had in the 14th and 15th centuries. Preemptive absolution sounds awful similar to papal indulgences). In other words, the theme of the book is not only sound, it comes close to being awesome (in the old sense of the word, inspiring awe). I would suggest this series to anyone who wishes to be provoked a little into thinking and also appreciates good fantasy and a the grandeur that accompanies it.
Rating:
Summary: Greatly moved
Review: Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy has included a trio of my favorite books. The setting is beautiful and engrossing, and the characters seem more human than most of the people I know. The plots were all fantastically enjoyable, with enough suspense and intrigue that you simply can't bring yourself to put the book down, even after multiple readings. After the first two volumes, I eagerly anticipated the third, praying it wouldn't be a disappointment. I am impressed often enough, but rarely moved. This book moved me to tears on several instances, as does simply thinking about it. It challenged my perceptions, and moved me to my soul. I cannot recommend a book more highly than this.
Rating:
Summary: Try to put this down!
Review: I have read, and re-read, every book by Pullman, and this seris is his best!! I've been waiting for this book well over 1 1/2 years, and it exceeded my very highest expetations!! You must read the 1st 2 books before this, however. If you liked this, I would totally reccomend the Sally Lockheart trilogy, about a willful girl in the confining times of 19th century-England. Again, this author rocks!!
Rating:
Summary: Great Book if you read it as a literary work
Review: Hello, This is a great book if you read as it is intended to be, a literary work. However, there will be debates for years to come about it's "Christian themes". I am a Christian and a devout one at that. However, I support all literature and I am against banning of any book. For all those right wing Christians who believe this book should be banned, let me say this. If we ban this book, we might as well ban the bible, for that is what will happen. Please do not infer any deep religious connection to this book. Read it for what it is, a retelling of Milton's paradise lost. Hopefully, Pullman will continue the series and write something on Milton's pardise regained. In any case, this book is a way to examine your beliefs. I have read it and my beliefs have been strenghted do to there examination. Thanks
Rating: 
Summary: extremely disappointing
Review: As a seventh and eighth grade English teacher, I was thrilled to discover "The Golden Compass" four years ago. I was even more thrilled to read "The Sublte Knife." I was even more excited by the prospect of the third book. Pullman's world was brilliant, his story was moving, and his themes were provoking. My students and I spent almost three years waiting for the third and final book, constantly bemoaning the constantly changing publishing date. Finally, I read the book. WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT. Pullman is a great writer. He continues to provoke. But what happened to his plot? What happened to all that preceded the final book? Why did Mary make the amber spyglass? What was really significant about the visit to the world of the dead? What about those characters, such as Iorek, Serrafina, and Lord Asriel, once so brilliantly and deeply conceived? What happened to their complexity? Like much of the plot, they just pop up, fill a space, and then disappear. Sure, those characters and creations developed in the previous books make appearances in "The Amber Spyglass," but their appearance and explanation seem obligatory and even silly. For example, the Spectres, as fascinating as they were in "The Suble Knife," are really ridiculously explained and then brushed aside in "The Amber Spyglass." I admire Pullman's courage in writing a book that challenges organized religion, and I agree with many of his themes. Unfortunately, he dropped the ball regarding his characters, his plot, and his overall vision. I was so looking forward to teaching this trilogy in the future. Unfortunately, I fail to see any real merit to the series as a result of this extremely disappointing final volume.
Rating:
Summary: A worthy conclusion to the trilogy.
Review: I bought this book the day after it came out and finished it yesterday. Like its predecessors, it was a hard read--not so much in the language (though for a children's book the vocabulary level is wonderful), but many of the concepts are hard for me, a born and raised Christian, to digest. I was very pleased with this book, as it tied up the many loose ends from the first two books into a wonderful, heart-wrenching conclusion. My fear for this book was that it would lose the spark of the first two novels, and though it was more predictable in places, this is a very worthy follow-up to "The Golden Compass" and "The Subtle Knife". I strongly recommend this to anyone with an open mind and a desire to read one of those rare books that touches your mind and your soul. Then lend me your copy...there's a list of seven people to borrow mine!
Rating:
Summary: Warring angels and elephants on wheels
Review: As one of the adult readers of this "young adult" book, I'd suggest that you're no less likely to like this at 31 than at 11. An involving, creative ride and a fitting conclusion to the trilogy. A word of caution: Pullman writes the whole series with a semi-aetheistic point of view that is crucial to the story: If you want stories with a point of view that doesn't violate Christian belief, this isn't your book. His point of view is clearly not Christian, although neither is it diabolical, as I was afraid he was starting to get with Subtle Knife. Intricate plot line, intriguing and detailed characters and settings, and good pacing. Highly recommended, but read the first two first or you may find yourself very confused (besides, why miss the fun of reading the whole batch?). Worth the wait, and one of the best books I've read this year.
Rating: 
Summary: A momentum that is impossible to maintain
Review: After staying up into the wee hours to finish the amber spyglass, I was compelled to go back to the first two books and read the trilogy from beginning to end, in order to get a better sense of the whole. I had waited for this concluding book since I finished The Subtle Knife 2 years ago and was hungry for the final pieces of the puzzle to fall into place. In this respect the book is satisfying, compelling, dizzying. But sadly it becomes fuzzy at the end and you realise that Pullman has in some ways been running out of gas from about half way through the Subtle Knife and by the end of TAS he poops out. The storytelling arc of Northern Lights/Golden Compass is so exquisitely crafted. The first 2 thirds of the book builds relentlessly to Bolvanger, and before you can catch your breath we are presented with the Bears of Svalbard and Lyras great betrayal by her cold, selfserving father. (is it really possible to say that Mrs. Coulter is any worse a parent than Asriel?). I just dont know that it was possible for Pullman or any writer to maintain such momentum and quality. The second and third books read so much more like serializations. with crises occuring and being resolved before there is much opportunity to build suspense. the knife breaks, the knife is repaired, did we ever doubt for a momnent that Lyra and Will would be reunited with their daemons?. For those of you, like me, who have lived so intimately in our imaginations with Lyra, Will, Iorek and Company for the last few years, this book is irresistable and only partly disappointing, and has it stopped me from urging every sentient being I know to read the whole trilogy? not at all.....
Rating:
Summary: Simply Great
Review: Personally i don't think its necessary to get into the whole political and moral controversy that surrounds this book. People can argue about it until their faces go blue but it is not going to change my opinion of the book and i will certainly recommend this book to anyone who will listen to me. It was a simply fascinating read, all three books were in fact. After the second book i had my doubts whether or not Pullman would be able to pull off another book like the previous two. I just didn't see how he was going to be able to wrap up the story. After all the delays in its publishing i started to get very worried, but last night I finished The Amber Spyglass it is astonishing how well the story was carried out clear to the end. I'm still literally feeling the effects of his words within me, it made me happy, sad, but most of all hopefull for the future. The ending was one of the most powerful i've read in a long time, Pullman is a master in describing the complexity of human emotions. My hat is off to you Philip
Rating:
Summary: A word about its theology and tone...
Review: I found myself at first surprised, then annoyed, by the theology presented by Pullman (most fully) in "The Amber Spyglass". Calling it a "theology" doesn't do it justice. Woven into the fabric of this book, it's much more; on its own, much less. This book's view of theology and religion is very narrow, the views presented are chosen very selectively. Pullman gives us an oddly Christian view of theism while managing to completely avoid the explicit mention of Christianity or Christ. It is centered entirely on the creation myth and the fall of man, its realization of this perspective a sort of caricature of the catholic church at its most intolerant. It is, in a way, Judeao-Christianity with all the good bits left out. He sets this straw man up as representative of all that theism and religion are -- indeed, all that they ever could be -- then, predictably, knocks it down. His theme is that religion and its practice are nothing more nor less than irrational authoritarianism. His theme, by itself, is sufficiently interesting and provocative to justify a novelistic examination. That he doesn't demonstrate or prove this theme, but simply asserts it and builds his straw man around it, is this book's profound weakness. It will be convincing to no one who doesn't already believe it. To the rest of us, it's shrill. My surprise is that he is willing to offend so many, my annoyance that he realizes his theme so thinly and justifies it so poorly. It owes a lot to Milton, but is not even a child's substitute. However, let us back off a few steps and not expect any real intellectual rigor. If we do this, we then can accept his theme as part of our suspension of disbelief, allow this caricature to stand in as fantasty's requesit uber-villain, and take satisfaction in seeing its defeat. This is what we need in a fantasy, and it's refreshing to see it expressed in the particulars with such originality. If we don't demand that Pullman prove his theorem, if we let it be simply provocative and interesting, then "His Dark Materials" is the better for it. Few fantasty novels even begin to examine the philosophical underpinnings of their morality: Evil simply *is*, it doesn't occur to us to ask if it really is not. These books certainly do *not* present a rational materialist viewpoint. They accept a mythologized universe a priori, then redefine its morality. It is in this way very theistic. And it's not a bad read.
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