Rating: 
Summary: Amber Spyglass... AWESOME!
Review: Amber Spyglass by Philip Pullman 3rd in the series
#1 Golden compass #2 Subtle Knife #3 Amber Spyglass
Age group: 9-13 Genre: FantasyLyra is a girl with blondish gold hair and has a knack for lying all the time. Will is a boy with brown hair and his mother is very strange, she thinks at all times people are watching her. When he was little his mother went to the market, she stole from the store and made it a game with Will. Lyra and Will both live in different worlds, Lyra lives in the world where there are daemons and Will's world, like ours. Daemons are animals that can shift to different animals. Everybody in Lyra's world has one. Daemons are humans companions. Will and Lyra are friends. They became friends when Lyra went through a portal made by Lord Asriel by using the electricity between a daemon and human. Daemons have a bonding with the human that is very strong so it generates a lot of friction when being pulled apart. Will met Lyra after Lyra went through the portal to another world. Will was walking around at night when he spotted a cat, the cat was chasing a moth, the moth went through the portal and so did the cat. The portal was like a small window in mid air so it was hard to see. Will followed the cat when he went in and found the world where Lyra was. Will and Lyra are wandering to the Land of the Dead to find Will's Father, and, Lyra's friend Roger, whom was in Golden Compass (the first book in the series). The Land of The Dead is where you go when you die, but the land of the dead is a very sad and bad place to be. While this is happening, Lord Asriel prepares to have a battle with his worst enemy. Mary Malone builds an amber spyglass while an assassin hunts her down. All the while Mrs. Coulter is trying to capture Lyra to keep her from eliminating the world of Dust (Dust is sin) it has nothing to do with the dust on your T.V. set! Lord Asriel is Lyra's father who is also trying to destroy the world of Dust. Mrs. Coulter is Lyra's Mother who is very evil. Mary Malone is Will and Lyra's friend who is a scientist that studies shadows. Shadows are in a way angels and she talks to them or studies them through a computer. Can Lyra and Will get to the land of the dead? Will Lord Asriel win in his battle? Will Mary Malone figure out the secret of Dust with the amber spyglass? You can only find out if you read it!
I learned from this book that people without daemons (you and me) still have a daemon inside of them. Daemons are like companions, like your conscience, like your gut, they tell you how to do things and give you advice. The thing I like about this book is that there are a lot of exciting parts, there is always something going on and Philip Pullman is very descriptive in his books. But the shocking thing is that the book can get confusing because it has so many things happen at one time and you get puzzled where the different things happened. Philip Pullman wrote more books called:
The Golden Compass. The Subtle Knife. The Ruby in The Smoke. The Tiger in The Well. Spring Heeled Jack. The Broken Bridge. I Was A Rat. The White Mercedes. Tin Princess. Count Karlstein. Puss in Boots. Clock Work. Northern Lights. Detective Stories. The Firework Makers Daughter. The Shadow in The North. Shadow in The Plate. Galatea. The New Cut Gang.
Rating:
Summary: At long last, Lyra and the Dust
Review: To be blunt, "The Amber Spyglass" is not a book for everyone. By defying long lasting stereotypes and overwraught cliches, Philip Pullman presents us simply with a coming-of-age story set amidst grand battles of good and evil, a mythical blend of science, physics, and theology, and characters that challenge you at every turn of the page. This book picks up the minute where "Subtle Knife" leaves off: the death of Will's father, Lyra mysteriously vanished, and the war revving up. The story starts from there, and takes off running. The writing is brisk and challenging on every page. Blurring the lines between good and evil, Pullman suggests that you can't classify a person as good or evil, but only their acts. It's a complex thought, and very daring, and very not "for everyone", which brings me to my next point. I can absolutely see where Christians, or people of any faith, would have serious problems with these books. There is an epic struggle against the one they call "The Authority", which stages events for Lyra's development in the future. Some people don't take kindly to any literature that dares to challenge God. I respect that fear, but disagree with it. It is in the challenge that illuminates our own beliefs and faith. I believe such a story, taken in one way, could never sway someone who was truly faithful away from their beliefs, and condemning them into a life in hell. Possibly our positions arre very precarious, and one little push could send someone tumbling into the deep pit fires. But I prefer to view my faith as illuminated by certain challenges, and it's in the questioning that you discover the deeper meanings that always were there. Not to say that this book does that. You could read this book with a thousand different interpretations. The ending is quite interesting, and something that I didn't predict would happen did, and as a reader, it's always nice to be surprised. But religious allegory, it isn't, but simply, a coming-of-age story, and am amazing one at that, of a little girl who finds her purpose in life. I'll be thinking of this book, and the entire series, for my lifetime to come.
Rating: 
Summary: A major disappointment . . .
Review: I can't recall another trilogy in which I so enjoyed the first two volumes (see my earlier reviews) and was so thoroughly disappointed in the finale. Lyra (now called Silvertongue) and Will Parry are back in Lyra's world this time, gearing up for the final battle between Good and Evil, trying to reach Lord Asriel, who commands the forces of humankind against the malevolence of God. Lyra was kidnapped by her mother at the end of Book 2 and has now been stashed in the Himalayas, and Will has to rescue her. He just happens to meet up with the migrating armored bears, who promise to help. Will's long lost father also has a key role -- there's no such thing as a chance encounter in this universe -- and so is Dr. Mary Malone from our own world. So far, so good. But by the halfway point in the narrative, we're involved with angels who have very human characteristics and whom I found totally unbelievable as what they are supposed to be, and the pace has slowed to a frustrating crawl. Frankly, I couldn't finish the book, which was very upsetting after all the time I invested in the story and the pleasure I drew from it until now.
Rating: 
Summary: CHRSITIAN READERS BEWARE
Review: I wish that i could give "The Amber Spyglass" -1 stars. I will admit that I have never read this book. I however have read book 1 and book 2 in this trilogy. The Golden Compass seemed innocent, a little violent, but ok. The torward the end of book two (The Subtle Knife), i noticed that the darkness and evil in this book blew Harry Potter out of the water. Any book that rebels against Christianity is disgusting. If any person (i am twelve) ages 11-13 reads this book, by the end they will be hoping that God loses the war without actual recognition of what they are hoping for. In the beginning of this series Phillip Pullman introduces Lyra and Will as the good guys, the people you want to win... naturally them being the main characters, you want them to defeat their opponent in the battle- but what any innocent youth won't realize (like me) is that you hope that God dies. So, basically, if God dies, Heaven dies, and if Heaven dies, it doesn't mean we won't live anymore but it means we don't have a point to live, because at the end of every life there is death- and in death, where will we go to? HELL! So, literally, Phillip Pullman is trying to assist Satan in winning a battle, that traces back to Adam ans Eve, and any book that suggests that is horrible! that is what happens if God dies- and God dying is the ending that Phillip Pullman sees fit for this book. I feel sad for that man, because he is obviously twisted, disturbed, and creepy, because he obviously wants to spend a lifetime in torture with Satan. My interpretation may be a little bit strong, but being a Christian, i can't help my opinions. I showed my mom a few reviews off of this book, and she is completely warped in guilt that she bought his book for me. So everybody out there, beware this disturbing book.
Rating: 
Summary: my review for this book
Review: it was a great book, with the best writing i've ever ever read in my life. it's not offensive at all, and it's only fiction anyway. i was just confused by the ending.
Rating:
Summary: READ IT!!!!!!!
Review: I read the entire series some time ago, but I am re-reading them now and each book has not lost the magical feeling I got when reading them for the first time. I have to say that both Northern Lights and The Subtle Knife are far better than this, but The Amber Spyglass is still a modern classic. There are some parts of the book which I found boring, but this book is still well worth the read. The majority of the book is exciting and gripping and although the book appears to be long, it consumes you so much that the majority of readers will finish it in under a week. There is one part that really lets it down, however, and that is the ending, which is simply depressing, especially seeing as Pullman develops the characters so well you feel as though they are real and you really know them and so their pain becomes your pain. Also, you realise this is the last adventure that Will and Lyra will embark on and this is also depressing, because it feels as though you are losing two good friends. To me, the His Dark Materials trilogy is the only decent thing Pullman ever wrote, which I find Ironic, because all his books are terrible, except for three which are among the greatest novels ever written.
Rating:
Summary: faboulous adventure into worlds
Review: this book is the best of the 3 part series, so good in fact was the whole series that I didn't want it to end!
Get these 3 books, the golden compass, the subtle knife, and the amber spyglass and give them a chance, it's not something that you will regret.
Rating: 
Summary: Well, maybe I had it coming...
Review: As a child, I remember reading The Chronicles of Narnia, adoring them, and then feeling cheated when I was old enough to realize that C.S. Lewis was really talking about Christ and Christianity (I was raised as an Ethical Humanist). Eventually I got over it and learned to love the books again, as well as the books of Madeleine L'Engle and other Christian writers. But as an adult who has since become a Christian AND a scientist, I don't know if I'll ever be able to get over my disappointment with the Amber Spyglass. I read the first two books and loved them, and was very interested to see how Pullman would resolve the theological puzzles he had set up in The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife. When I read that one of Lyra's names was "Aeshaster" (excuse the spelling), I wondered if Pullman was alluding to 'Easter', and planning to link Lyra with God's love and desire to wipe away sin, turning her into a Christ figure. Instead, Amber Spyglass resonates with deep disappointment in Christianity and especially Catholicism. We are served up God as a dying angel and the Church as a mix of murderers, pedophilic priests, and inquisitors. Christ, unsurprisingly, is nowhere to be found. After all, a loving Christ who gave his life to bring people closer to God and free them from sin and death would not fit into Pullman's assessment of the Church as being interested only in obliterating every good feeling and impulse. Nor is it spirituality and the supernatural that are on trial here, it is the Christian Church, period. Pullman gives a loving or at least balanced treatment of shamanism, witches and Tibetan Buddhism, for instance. I don't object to Pullman listing the abuses of the Christian Church, past or present. I think that's a worthy subject. But in writing this kind of one-sided portrayal, Pullman is at best attacking a straw man, and at worst , is offensive and deeply misleading. Even C.S. Lewis's treatment of the Calormenes in the Narnian Chronicles, which has justly come under fire for tones of racism, is more positive and balanced than this stuff (and Lewis was writing fifty years ago, after all). Perhaps it's ironic that, although Pullman casts Lyra in the role of Eve, she ends up becoming a Christ figure after all. She travels to the land of the dead to redeem a life and rises again, which no one in that world has done before. Like Christ, she desperately wants to provide comfort to all souls, even ones as difficult to love as the Harpies. And again, at the very end of the book, she makes a great sacrifice for the world because of her great love. There are even overtones of this in Asriel and Marisa Coulter's decision to sacrifice themselves for the sake of their daughter, all in the name of love. If children and adults can recognize Christ or Christian themes in these roles, then that gives me a little comfort. I'm giving this two stars, because the storytelling is still excellent, although this seems like the weakest of the three books.
Rating:
Summary: Seldom have I ever read a more closed-minded book.
Review: Let us hear it for the most open-minded statement of the century. "She said that all the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. She and the rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority [God] and his churches have always tried to keep them closed." So let us analyze this. It is saying that, A. Christians are stupid, and B. Christians are closed-minded. Oh now I finally understand the true meaning of open-mindedness. It is to believe whatever Philip Pullman believes, right? Because obviously all Christians are repressed, homophobic, brainwashed, [people], who do not question what the Church tells them to do. Philip Pullman is a wonderfully eloquent author, whose writing is absolutely beautiful, but that doesn't make him correct. He needed to do his research more carefully. In the Bible it clearly states "Question Everything," now maybe not all churches put that to the forefront of every sermon, but that phrase is there none the less.
The most annoying thing about this book is though that Philip Pullman obviously thinks that he is open-minded, and it seems that many people agree. It seems that every other religion has protection, and if he had chosen to pick on any religion other than Christianity he would never, and I mean NEVER, have gotten away with it. Why is it alright to say that my religion is wrong? Why is it alright to say that all Christians are evil, or stupid (for there is not one sympathetic Christian in the entire book)? I know that my religion has it's problems, and brings some things upon itself (the whole "Harry Potter is evil" thing is ridiculous), but that does not mean that people can just blatantly disregard the fact that ALL religions deserve respect.
I gave this book 2 stars because it is genuinely well written (though not as well written as the previous two books in the series), and gripping. But I must say that it did get thrown across my room several times because of the blatant bias that it was written from.
Rating:
Summary: I want my money back
Review: First, I have 5 children aged 13 to 20 who, for the most part, love to read. They do not, however, like to start a series before the author has completed the last book (the Harry Potter series is driving them crazy while they wait for the next book) and I frequently find myself reading a series to let them know if it is worth the time. I read the first two books in the series as they came out and found the characters intriguing but the treatment of religion rather heavy handed. Still, it is a fantasy and characters are subject to extreme interpretation. When I came to this book, The Amber Spyglass, I saw the gloves come off and the author exposed the series for what it really is, a bully pulpit for his hatred of organized religion, particularly the catholic church. I am not catholic and do not subscribe to their beliefs but I find Pullman's stance offensive. Ironically, I tend to agree with some of his complaints about the church, but a series of books for young adults is not the appropriate place to sow seeds of hate. Make no mistake, that is what comes through loud and clear. The author hates and wants the reader to share his feelings. The fact that he tells a good story makes this perversion of the media all the more objectionable. I feel cheated and wish I had not spent good money to support this hateful message.
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