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The Amber Spyglass (2000)

by Philip Pullman

Other authors: See the other authors section.

Series: His Dark Materials (3)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingMentions
23,475406150 (4)200
Lyra and Will find themselves at the center of a battle between the forces of the Authority and those gathered by Lyra's father, Lord Asriel.
  1. 62
    The Neverending Story by Michael Ende (Leishai)
    Leishai: Also a story about fantasy with another world
  2. 30
    Sabriel by Garth Nix (Morteana)
  3. 31
    Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell by Susanna Clarke (thebookpile)
  4. 21
    The City of Dreaming Books by Walter Moers (Leishai)
  5. 10
    Cold Fire by Kate Elliott (Jen448)
  6. 11
    Lycidas by Christoph Marzi (Leishai)
  7. 01
    The Once and Future King by T. H. White (themulhern)
    themulhern: This book follows a similar trajectory to the HDM trilogy, starting out fairly light and bright and growing gradually more somber, mature, and troubled.
Ghosts (50)
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» See also 200 mentions

English (385)  Spanish (4)  Italian (3)  German (2)  French (2)  Dutch (1)  Danish (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Croatian (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (401)
Showing 1-5 of 385 (next | show all)
Read it right after it came out in 2000. Hard to believe how young I was then---12---and now that I'm thinking of it, I'm curious if it'll read differently to me today.

I remember it being not quite as perfect as the first two, but still worthy. ( )
  caedocyon | Feb 26, 2024 |
Ultimately, Pullman's reach exceeded his grasp. He just tried to cram too big a story into his trilogy (and especially in this last book). There are too many characters with incomplete story lines, who pop into the main narrative a little too frequently and a little too conveniently to save the protagonists. Properly fleshed out, this probably would have gone on for another novel or two. But by then, YA and adult readers alike would have lost interest because the story ultimately just isn't that interesting or satisfying.
The philosophical/metaphysical/theological point that Pullman introduces is just too muddled. Is the Authority God? Is Metatron? How can a being that "runs" multiple earths (if not their whole universes) be tricked so easily? And what the hell happens at the conclusion of the battle with the Kingdom of Heaven? We never learn because Lyra and Will just pop through to a different world and then completely lose interest in whether their friends survive. They never even once mention the battle again! Even 12-year-olds are not that self-absorbed.
In the end, I just kept listening because I had already committed so much time to the book. But had I never checked the book out from the library, I probably would never have missed knowing how the trilogy ended. ( )
  Treebeard_404 | Jan 23, 2024 |
I like the message and the ideas behind these books, but the plot didn't really blow me off my feet. Especially the whole big battle is completely underdeveloped for something which was granted so much attention in the earlier books. The dusty conclusion doesn't really satisfy after 3 volumes of building up to... what exactly?! ( )
  adastra | Jan 15, 2024 |
I didn't like this one as much as the first, but I was still amazing writing and a very creative story. ( )
  Dances_with_Words | Jan 6, 2024 |
I suppose the thing about trilogies is that the story builds and builds and then it has to end. And really what ending is satisfying? This series surprised me in its religiosity (particularly the stuff about Christianity being a con) but the ending didn't surprise me at all.

Still, I'd probably recommend it to kids 12 and up who like this sort of thing. ( )
  LibrarianDest | Jan 3, 2024 |
Showing 1-5 of 385 (next | show all)
And as the bumpy journey among these dark materials comes to an end, there is the most moving of scenes: all fantasy subdued and only human frailty revealed in the real world of Oxford's Botanic Garden.
 

» Add other authors (18 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Pullman, Philipprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Bailey, PeterIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bützow, HeleneTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bruno, FrancescoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rohmann, EricCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ströle, WolframÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Tiffert, ReinhardÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Tulinius, Gretesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
O tell of His might, O sing of His grace,
Whose robe is the light, whose canopy space,
His chariots of wrath the deep thunderclouds form,
And dark is His path on the wings of the storm.

    Robert Grant, from Hymns Ancient and Modern.
O stars,
isn't it from you that the lover's desire for the face
of his beloved arises? Doesn't his secret insight
into her pure features come from pure constellations?

    Ranier Maria Rilke, The Third Elegy.
    From The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (transl. Stephen Michell)
Fine vapors escape from whatever is doing the living.
The night is cold and delicate and full of angels
Pounding down the living. The factories are all lit up,
The chime goes unheard.
We are together at last, though far apart.

    John Ashbery, The Ecclesiast.
    From River and Mountains.
Dedication
First words
In a valley shaded with rhododendrons, close to the snow line, where a stream milky with melt-water splashed and where doves and linnets flew among the immense pines, lay a cave, half-hidden by the crag above and the stiff heavy leaves that clustered below.
Quotations
I used to be a nun, you see. 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.
“But there’s my mother. I’ve got to go back and look after her. I just left her with Mrs Cooper, and it’s not fair on either of them.”

“But it’s not fair on you to have to do that.”

“No,” he said, “but that’s a different sort of not fair. That’s just like an earthquake or a rainstorm. It might not be fair, but no one’s to blame. But if I just leave my mother with an old lady who isn’t very well herself, then that’s a different kind of not fair. That would be wrong.
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Wikipedia in English (2)

Lyra and Will find themselves at the center of a battle between the forces of the Authority and those gathered by Lyra's father, Lord Asriel.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
In the astonishing finale to the His Dark Materials trilogy, Lyra and Will are in unspeakable danger. With help from Iorek Byrnison the armored bear and two tiny Gallivespian spies, they must journey to a dank and gray-lit world where no living soul has ever gone. All the while, Dr. Mary Malone builds a magnificent Amber Spyglass. An assassin hunts her down, and Lord Asriel, with a troop of shining angels, fights his mighty rebellion, in a battle of strange allies—and shocking sacrifice.

As war rages and Dust drains from the sky, the fate of the living—and the dead—finally comes to depend on two children and the simple truth of one simple story.
Haiku summary
Heroine suffers.
But in the end it's only
Midi-chlorians.
(Noisy)

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