Rating: 
Summary: The Best Book That Has Ever Been Written
Review: I have read the first book at least a hundred times, my cat is named after a character, and I thought that nothing could ever obtain the perffection that the Golden Compass acheived. But The Amber Spyglass surpasses the Golden Compass By FAR!! If a more perfect book exsists, I would like to read it, truly. I love this series, it changed my outlook on many things in life.
Rating:
Summary: Beautiful. Awe inspiring
Review: This book still gives me chills. It's the kind of book whose world you dive into and you never want to leave. Very few writers come close to getting an inkling of the way the world works. An excellent series that is filled with hope, wide-eyed innocence, courage and sacrifice and love.
Rating:
Summary: Ambitious, Daring AND UNUSABLE IN A CLASSROOM!
Review: As a teacher of English and as an adult, I loved this book. I enjoyed how Pullman strove to go beyond typical fantasy plotting (a' la The Wheel of Time series) and create a new Paradise Lost. However, the first two novels only barely hint at the theological implicatiobs that Pullman brings to the forefront in The Amber Spyglass. Pullman has made this series practically unusable in a public school setting. I have, without hesitiation, given The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife to my students. But the dismissive attitude towards organized religion wil give me pause before I give it to any of my seventh graders (although I tend to agree with his themes), and I certainly can't use it for entire classes. As an artist, Pullman obviously has the right to go in any direction he wants to; I was just somewhat startled by the intense theological tone set In Book III.
Rating:
Summary: Beauty Beyond Reality
Review: This book was the most beautiful, the most powerful, and the saddest that I have ever read in my 12 years of life. There is none to equal it, or even rival it. If I ever find one, I'll tell you, but I doubt I will. Love has been portrayed a thousand times before in films, art, and the written word, but never has it been portrayed more truthfully or more powerfull than in this book. Lyra's love for Will is the element which is the most beautiul; it is tangible and impenetrable; it is truth itself. Its portrayal brought me to tears. Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are two of the most confusing characters in not only this book, but in the whole series. I myself have felt the sensation of wishing to hug them and strangle them at the same time. They have both been portrayed as cruel and perhaps sinister in both the previous books of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, but now, in this final installment, after all their years of cruelty and indifference to Lyra, their final act is to die for their daughter. When I first discovered that there were only to be 3 books in the series, I moaned and resolved to write to Mr. Pullman and beg for just one more when I finished the third. But now I realize the series is complete; there is no more to tell. The story of Lyra and Will is not over, but it is at a close. I finished this tapestry of beauty and sadness two days ago and still it has me in its grasp. I really have tried to start other books, but I have thrown them away from me in disgust. I can't seem to stop making comparisons to "The Amber Spyglass." It seems that its glamor was too deep for me to ever be happy with any other book ever again. I used to believe that "The Golden Compass" would never be rivaled. I was a mile from the mark; "The Amber Spyglass" surpasses any other printed text in this or any other country in the world. I hold this book close to my heart and look to the sky and think, "Perhaps I myself can travel to another world and do great deeds." But for now, I have "The Amber Spyglass" to sing to my heart while I wait for the northern lights to open a passage in the sky.
Rating: 
Summary: Afflicted by Clancy
Review: Alas, I found this book to be tow long, as another reviewer said, another round of edits would have helped. As the author admits in the introductory material, he freely borrows ideas and techniques from others--I have no problem with that. In this case he seems to have borrowed the style of Tom Clancy with all of the jumping around between the various characters. Some plot lines, Fr. Gomez, should have been better developed or dropped. Clancy often does this with his Bart Mancuso character. He has to get him in for at least 50 pages with no justifiable reason.Perhaps I haven't read the first two books recently enough, but it seems that the cosmology (the Authority, Metatron, etc) popped out without sufficient clues.
Rating:
Summary: His Best Book Yet
Review: I have read his Sally Lockheart triolgy. I never thought anything could be better than that. Robert Cormier came close in few of his books but never up to Phillip Pullman. Then he decides to write another triology and at first I thought there was no way it could be better, but with the excitement and the tension and just the great story line along the way. It makes you think about things we have no knowledge about. He took a gigantic risk with saying the things he said in the book but that just made it better. It was well written and I loved it ranking it the best book he's written thus the best book I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Enthralled and Disappointed
Review: I have enthralled many a reader in my classroom with Phillip Pullman's brilliant novels. For the last three years, I have created a core group of students waiting for "the third book." I read it myself in two evenings and relished every minute. Alas, my students will not see it, nor can I suggest their parents buy it for them. Philisophically, Pullman went too far for the impressionable young reader. Hopefully when they're in high school they'll remember to look it up. Thanks for the ride, Mr. Pullman. I only wish the kids could have come along. Enthralled and disappointed... school,
Rating:
Summary: Simply stunning
Review: The richness of The Amber Spyglass is unmatched. I have never read a more absorbing, more powerful book then The Amber Spyglass. A shocking revelation is made on the icy Mrs. Coulter: love. Will, angry from Lyra's kidnapping, storms into action and tries to rescue his friend back. Dr. Mary Malone builds a magnificent amber spylglass that has the power to see Dust, the mysterious golden substance that no one has known the meaning of. All the while Lord Asriel is busy with war and makes an alliance for the better that will mean a sacrifice. In the stunning and masterful conclusion of the His Dark Materials trilogy, Phillip Pullman brings out the message that the other two books The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife brought out too. Only in the ending of this book it is a message so powerful, a message so meaningful, that it is beyond anything you can imagine. I recommend the His Dark Materials trilogy to anyone, whether you hate to read, or you love to read, because to me, it is absolutely the most fantastic three books I've ever read.
Rating:
Summary: Challenging and beautiful
Review: The Amber Spyglass is a classic- not in the narrow sense of the word that we've come to associate with the word, overused as it is. This book is a true classic- beautiful, grand and thought-provoking. The book expands on the universe created in the first two books and elevates the vision of the series. No longer the simple adventure story in the Golden Compass, or the tense mystery of the second, the Amber Spyglass creates the sensation of events rushing past and a universe at war, always swirling around the two children at the book's heart. I don't know what the editor or publisher was thinking when he classified the book as Young Adult. As readers have said, young people (although I hope not all of them) will miss a lot of the book and the underlying theme of losing 'paradise'. Those who do will find their beliefs (if they are Judeo-Christian) challenged (I believe this is a good thing, personally). The book is less about Paradise lost then Paradise gained. Pullman beautifully portrays Will and Lyra as Adam and Eve at the end. Their 'fall from grace', in this book signifying their maturing and falling in love, is portrayed as a good and beautiful thing ("humans coming into their full inheritance"). The ending also leaves a bittersweet and melancholy taste in the mouth that affected me a lot. As for those who feel young people shouldn't be allowed to read this book, you are underestimating them. Those who will get the underlying message will be smart ebough to think carefully about them. If you think the message of the book is wrong, that is no reason to ban it or stop it from being read. I would recommend this book to pretty much anybody who wants to think and be awed. This is book is for those people.
Rating: 
Summary: Really Disappointing
Review: I have read and re-read the first two books of this trilogy over the past few years, waiting for this third and final installment with great anticipation. i could not be more disappointed. Not only does the book drag with too many characters and too many scenes (I felt the Golden Compass had not a wasted word), but the author's goal in the Amber Spyglass is disturbing and upsetting. It does not seem that Pullman has thought through the logical consequences of his a-theology. In fact, throughout the trilogy, I as a reader have been frustrated by the arbitrariness of the rules which govern the universe Pullman has created. Finishing the Amber Spyglass, we understand better the arbitrary nature of his realm, but Pullman does not really have a foundation for any rules at all. There is no rhyme or reason to daemons or the underworld or the consequences of travelling between worlds. There is no ground for his "reality" and so no way to believe in how his characters deal with the reality he has created.
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