The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3) (original 2000; edition 2003)

Much better than the movie!!! ( )

And so I finish the last book in Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. Strangely, I don’t remember the phrase “his dark materials” appearing once in any book so I’m none the wiser there. Pullman’s a writer with an agenda and, as The Amber Spyglass comes to a close, that agenda comes more and more to the fore. Overall I was disappointed with the series. There’s no doubt he can tell a story but there’s no way he even comes close to the seemingly effortless narration of Tolkein or Lewis, writers he’s often been compared to.

The Amber Spyglass picks up straight where the last book, The Subtle Knife, leaves off. If you haven’t read the previous two books, you’ll find a lot of it bewildering so don’t do that as very little is explained from before.

Now, you expect a third book in a trilogy to fulfil all the prophecies in the other two. To a certain extent this is achieved. But I found Pullman’s themes of dust and parallel universes just weren’t developed enough as they could have been. In fact, I think it needed a whole other book to really do it justice. This is a shame because I think Pullman’s got some good points to make about the church and religion and how they can stifle the freedom that Christ has for us. But, like oh so many non-Christian writers, they fail to distinguish between Christ and relationship with him and church and religious affliation to that. Again, this is a shame despite some very interesting ideas about the origin of the being us Christians call God.

One interesting insight into what Pullman is all about with the trilogy comes from the very last line (see below). But by finishing the book that way, he leaves hanging one major question which is assumed throughout the book and is nowhere dealt with: why should there be a heaven and no supreme being? There are other questions that need answering too. Why is a republic better than a kingdom? It may look that way to a humanist but, in time, republics will seem barbaric too.

Pullman seems to start out from the premise “God is bad.” Why so? In the book, when a being decides he will call himself God and deceive everyone into worshipping him, this is a bad thing. And even traditional Christianity would agree with that. We call him Satan. Pullman’s point is that this usurpation of authority and totalitarian wielding of that is a bad thing. I agree. But this supposes that there is an Authority there in the first place… in His rightful place, perhaps? It’s not a watertight argument at all for me. Maybe some of you can shed some light on Pullman’s point here.

Storywise, I found it drifted all over the place and gave the impression that Pullman was trying to tie up all these loose ends of story that he had lying around from the first two books. There’s a visit to the world of the dead but it makes no real sense as to why they have to go there. There are spectres but what they are and why seems vague. There’s predictions that the Knife will be used to kill the Authority. But this never happens. And there’s all sorts of weird stuff with Will and Lyra and daemons that seems random to me. And Mary Malone’s role, despite her being a main character, seems peripheral throughout. There are so many worlds and scenes and angels and witches and ghosts and stuff that it’s hard to know how they all relate to each other and tie together. And don’t even get me started on Dust and where and why it’s flowing and what windows are all about and stuff… there’s just waaaaaay too much that you just have to read and say “Oh, okay, if you say so.” There’s no natural “Yeah, that makes sense.” to any of it at all really.

Glad I’ve read the trilogy now though but there were very few parts when I got lost in the story as I did with Narnia or Middle Earth and forgot about the metaphors. For me, the metaphors overpowered the story and characters and kind of cluttered it all up really, leaving it with little of the subtlety that I’ve come to expect from Lewis or Tolkein. ( )

In the entire "His Dark Materials" trilogy, the quality that I most appreciate is the ambiguity of the "goodness" or "badness" of many of the characters. The reader obviously understands that Lyra and Will are on the righteous track, but among the other characters, I was uncertain to the very end just who was "in the right." I loved not knowing, for it is a very rare experience in contemporary literature.
"The Amber Spyglass" is the thoughtful, powerful conclusion to Pullman's trilogy, and it slows down somewhat as events near their climax. Focus shifts to the protagonists' internal revelations as their destinies draw near, and the narrative accordingly grows more dense and intimate.
While I am still not sure how I feel about the resolution of Lyra's role in the mysterious prophecy that's bandied about through the trilogy, I love that it made me think deeply and critically.
I understand that many people are concerned about Pullman's depiction of God and organized religion in these books. While I can see why they might be upset, I was always taught that exposure to criticism is good for a person (and for institutions), so while my feelings about theology and the church are very different from Pullman's, it did not stop me from getting a lot out of this series, and from finding the positive message that applies to life no matter how a person believes. ( )

Superb finish to a magical series. ( )

This is the last in the trilogy of 'His Dark Materials', and everything is resolved; although not necessarily most happily. Lyra and Will are racing against different factions towards an unknown destiny, when she will determine the fate of the multiverse.

This is a well written book. Though the protagonists are young children, it is probably aimed at young adults, as there is some violence, and a bit of philosophy. Although I read the first two books in this trilogy a couple of years ago, 'The Amber Spyglass' had me hooked. I like the way the details of the segments of the different universes are thought out, and I appreciated the sense of urgency overhanging the whole book. I was left slightly unsatisfied with the ending, because I do like my happily-ever-afters; but I suspect that this is one of the things that make the book a classic for a lot of readers. ( )

8 ( )

The conclusion of the His Dark Materials Trilogy is filled with unexpected twists and turns. We find Lyra and Will joining forces to find their way into the world of the dead, and Dr Mary Malone, the scientist Lyra meets in book 2, somehow ends up in a world where the creatures have evolved to transport themselves on wheels, which somehow contribute to increasing their self-awareness. Here I finally understood why the trilogy created such a scandal in religious circles because Pullman brings the battle between those who defend Dust and those who would eradicated it (aka the Authority, aka God) to a violent conclusion. In the end, what I liked most in this three-part story is the relationship that people from Lyra's world have with their daemons, which are their souls embodied as the animals who resemble them most. ( )

Bloody midi-chlorians; get everywhere. ( )

By far the saddest, most violent and most anti-religion of the His Dark Materials trilogy, but an excellent conclusion to this thought provoking series. ( )

Lyra's and Will's adventures in alternative worlds end, as they have to make some tough choices. Gorgeously written, beautifully described, intricately plotted. Incredible series by Phillip Pullman. ( )

For me, not as gripping as the first two, but I shall miss Lyra, Will, and Pullman's skill in weaving the narrative and giving the characters depth. The weight of the book shifts further from adventure towards ideology in this final installment. ( )

While the final book in this trilogy is far more philosophy-based and slightly less physically adventurous than the first two, I feel as though it was a perfect, wonderful ending to the series. ( )

A gripping conclusion to the Dark Materials trilogy. Lyra and Will, now reunited battle to stop the Church and their allies destroy dust forever. And the truth is revealed with devastating consequences for the two of them. ( )

As is sometimes the case with a concluding title in a series, I just didn't find this to be as satisfying as the first two books. Exploring Lyra's world in the first book, and then the intersections of multiple worlds (and a new protagonist) in the second book were somehow more compelling than the new elements in the Amber Spyglass. I don't want to be a spoiler for those who haven't read it, but the author spends a lot of time with a type of non-human creature with many anthropomorphic qualities, and I found those sections to be rather dry and dull - more anthropological or ethnographic than fantastical or even entertaining. I think this is almost a case of the book having so much potential built up by the first and second books that the author didn't know how to manage it all, and wound up going off on a random tangent instead of fulfilling the promise of his previous efforts. There is also a lot of theology happening here, sometimes to the detriment of the entertainment value of the book. I didn't believe the hype about the books being anti-Christian until this one, in which a key character states that "The Christian religion is a very powerful and convincing mistake, that's all." But I don't want to make it sound like the trilogy isn't worth reading, it is. The first two books are great. I read the second book in about a day and a half. The characters are strong and compelling, and their world draws you in with its richness and possibility. Just be prepared for a possible letdown in the third installment. ( )

Ah. Contains one of my favorite ending sentences of a novel, ever. His Dark Materials is one of those YA series that seems to grow up with the reader... each novel progressively darker and more nuanced. For example, Mrs. Coulter, who was such an unadulterated villain in the first book, is much more complex by the third. Layered characters with conflicting motives -- they're like crack to me. Also, I came to love the idea of Dust, which seemed little more than a plot device in the first novel, but by the end... what a beautiful idea.

UPDATE: I just had a minor epiphany (minipiphany?) today at work: that getting my brain ready for subject analysis is very much like Lyra's state of mind when reading the alethiometer. Except that my alethiometer isn't inscribed with pictures, but MARC tags, each with ladders of meaning, defined by indicators, delimiters, subfields, and thesauri. Or maybe I just really need the long weekend. ( )

This is the third and last part of Pullman's His Dark Materials which I've seen described as an "atheist's Narnia." It's certainly the only series I've read comparable in ambition and quality in the genre, and as such I think it shares the major attractions and weaknesses of C.S. Lewis' Christian fantasies for children. I read Tolkien, a friend and fellow Christian of Lewis, didn't like Narnia. He stated in his introduction to Lord of the Rings that he doesn't like allegory, and that's exactly what those two series have in common, and that comes most to the fore in this last book and it's both its weakness and strength.

In the first book, Lyra's world was so engaging, with its armored polar bears, it's flying witches, and above all its animal "daemon" companions, the polemic flew right over my head. In the second book, primarily in our own world where we meet the boy Will Parry, it was more evident, but at the same time I loved how Pullman weaved together science and religion, dark matter and consciousness and sin, making his book as much science fiction as fantasy. I felt more mixed about the third book at first, where these themes become more blatant. The first time I stopped two-thirds through at "No Way Out." Just as at first I first stopped at Narnia's first book, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe when I felt the Christian allegory had overwhelmed story. I can point to the very passage that put me off in The Amber Spyglass, when Lyra explained to ghosts trapped in hell that if released "all the atoms that were them, they've gone into the air and the wind and the trees and the earth and all the living things. They'll never vanish. They're just part of everything." That seemed so...atheist dogma. I call myself an atheist, because it's what I am--someone who doesn't believe in a god or gods. But that doesn't mean I can't recognize the secular humanist cant that tries to find a substitute for the idea of heaven to put the fear of death at a distance, and I find the idea hollow and as much an orthodoxy in its way as Dante's heavenly spheres. A friend of mine feels that "Pullman's avil-shaped anti-church polemic ruined the series" and frankly, insert a "almost" between "polemic" and "ruined" and I don't disagree.

Nevertheless I returned to The Amber Spyglass, ironically after making my way through the rest of the land of Narnia, and I have to admit that despite how I feel about the, to my adult mind, blatant polemic, just as with Narnia, there is just so much about this novel and series I find brilliant. At the end of The Amber Spyglass, Pullman acknowledges a debt to Milton's Paradise Lost and the poet William Blake, and I can't help but admire how he used those materials. There are so many scenes that stand out to me in this third book. The description of the Underworld is riveting from the very beginning, where bare earth is "beaten flat by the pressure of millions of feet, even though those feet had less weight than feathers; so it must have been time that pressed it flat, even though time had been stilled in this place." Possibly the most moving scene in any of the books is the one in this book where Lyra parts with her daemon Pan at the shore of hell's river.

This really is an anti-Narnia, and I think I can appreciate His Dark Materials more for having read Narnia. In Narnia, to grow up is to lose access to that magical land, and it's better to die young than to lose innocence and with it faith. Pullman's message is the opposite. He values experience, knowledge, life. And while Narnia's ideal land is a kingdom, Pullman's is a republic. Although I'm more sympathetic to Pullman's vision, I'd give Narnia a tiny edge. I like the children of Narnia more than Lyra and Will. (Although Lyra grew on me, especially in the last book, and I liked Will from the beginning.) Narnia is more exuberant in its imagination, more charming, and it has more humor. But in the end I still do love Pullman's story as well, which feels more unified in its themes. (And it's not dated in its depictions of race and gender the way Narnia is at times, and the last paragraphs of The Amber Spyglass, unlike Narnia's final book The Last Battle, didn't leave me wanting to hurl the book against the wall; indeed the last line left me smiling.)

I'm not sure how children are taken by His Dark Materials. I know people who read The Chronicles of Narnia as children and loved it said the Christian allegory went over their head. Maybe the didacticism I find off-putting in Pullman would go over their heads as well, leaving them only with the wonder of flying witches, gypsies, armored polar bears, tiny people who fly on dragonflies, antelopes with trunks that roll around on seed pods, and above all the lovable animal daemons that are part of each human's soul. I wouldn't hesitate to give children--and adults who love fantasy--both sets of books as gifts: food for the mind and imagination.

Edit: A friend of mine said she did read it as a child, that she was 12 when The Amber Spyglass came out. She said she was aware of an underlying message, but it didn't bother her at the time, and the books were favorites, though she hasn't read them since. She thinks that children just have a lot more tolerance for being preached at than adults. She loved Narnia too btw. ( )

This spyglass was tucked in her breast pocket, and she took it out now. When she looked through it, she saw those drifting golden sparkles, the sraf, the Shadows, Lyra's Dust, like a vast cloud of tiny beings floating through the wind.

Ever since she walked into the workman's tent in "The Subtle Knife", I had been wondering what had happened to Mary Malone and I was pleased to find that she had a big part in the third book. Her adventures among the mulefa and her further discoveries about the properties of Dust were fascinating. It gradually became clear as the story went on, that all the worlds are under threat, but is that due to Lord Asriel's experiments or something else? As the trilogy went on, I found myself wondering more and more about the nature of Dust. What did it have to do with the development of intelligent life? Did it cause animals to become suddenly self-aware 33,000 years ago? And if so, why did it happened 33,000 years ago in worlds as different as ours, Lyra's and that of the mulefa? And why is it attracted to adults and man-made objects, but not to children? Is it to do with the loss of innocence, and if so, are the Church correct in thinking that Dust is sin and that if Dust could be prevented from being attracted to adults, the world would be free from sin? Or are they dangerously mistaken and in fact intelligent life would be impossible without Dust? ( )

So, I’ve finally reached the end of the His Dark Materials series. I have my answers as to what happens to Lyra and Will — for the most part. I also have answers for what happens to all the major characters, which is satisfying. Out of all the books, The Amber Spyglass is the most complex of the three by far. It is, therefore, the most rewarding to read. Pullman constructs a universe whose properties lend us the freedom to imagine many answers to our questions, and to make what we will of the final events in Lyra and Will’s story.

Full review: http://libwen.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/the-amber-spyglass-by-philip-pullman/ ( )

As gripping as the first two books in the trilogy. ( )

This triology is an outstanding fantasy with great charm and sadness. I enjoyed this recording immensely. ( )

I am always impressed by an author’s ability to create a fantasy world with unusual characters and foreign & fascinating landscapes. So, when it comes to “The Amber Spyglass”, I am especially astonished by Philip Pullman’s ability to not just create one such alternate universe, but a multitude of them!

"The Amber Spyglass" is the conclusion of the "His Dark Materials" series and, in my opinion, the best. Lyra and Will’s travels from one universe to another as they work together to fulfill Lyra’s prophesized destiny…Mrs. Coulter’s fall from grace and ultimate redemption…Dr. Mary Malone and the mulefa (my favorite non-humans in these books!)…the death of Death…good vs. evil…love…and of course, Dust (or Shadows…or Dark Matter…depending on your universe) – all these topics are combined into a unique story that I just couldn’t stop reading!

The censors have had a field day with this series because of the atheistic theme involved here. I personally think that Philip Pullman is very bold to incorporate his atheistic philosophy into a fantasy such as this. I’m not going to get into my own thoughts about “life, the universe and everything in it” but as far as my feelings about whether or not Pullman should have created a piece of young adult fiction with atheism as an underlying agenda, these are my thoughts:

1. First of all, I think it really depends on how one defines “YA fiction.” From definitions I have seen, YA fiction roughly is meant for ages 13 through 21 – that’s a really wide age-range (big difference between a 13-year-old and a 19-year-old!). I honestly think that while a younger young adult (13-14) might find the fantasy aspect of this tale intriguing, some of the deeper religious and philosophical issues would likely go over his/her head. (My daughter, who is now 16, attests to this – she says she wants to re-read them because although she remembers loving the books when she read them at age 13, she admits that there was a lot that she just didn’t “get”…)

2. As far as my feelings about the underlying anti-religion agenda of this book, it doesn’t really bother me. Throughout my life as a reader, I have read fiction with underlying religious and philosophical messages, some of which adhere to my personal beliefs and some of which do not. I have read many comparisons to the underlying Christian morality of [The Chronicles of Narnia] by [[C.S. Lewis]], with Aslan the lion being described as an obvious Christ figure. Since I have not actually read this series yet, it’s hard for me to say for sure. However, I remember when I first introduced my children to the Veggie Tales books & movies and being shocked to discover that these cute, animated vegetables really had a very religious agenda. A hidden religious agenda cloaked as stories for even younger children?!? But, like the [His Dark Materials Series], I think lessons can be learned from different ideas about the world, even if they don’t jive with your own…it’s just a good idea to be able to talk freely about these issues and encourage children to ask questions.

3. In one of the college classes I teach, we start off with a discussion of human commonalities and differences. We talk about how in all cultures throughout times, people have asked questions about the nature of the universe – Who are we? How did we get here? What happens after we die? The difference has always been how we answer those questions. Philip Pullman is an atheist and he takes an atheistic approach to these questions…so while some storytellers may write stories or parables addressing these questions from a Christian, or Judaic, or Islamic,or Hindu (etc. etc) perspective, this author chooses a different way of looking at things. Nothing wrong with that, even if you don’t agree with or even like the conclusion…and after all, it is just a story – and a really entertaining one at that! ( )

What a fantastic ending to a fantastic trilogy. The Amber Spyglass concludes the adventures begun by Lyra in The Golden Compass, and which continued on with the addition of Will in the Subtle Knife.

The Amber Spyglass is no let down and brings the story to an amazing end. It holds up in terms of excitement and adventure and resolves pretty much everything you could ever wonder about.

Additionally the message that has been there all along is very clearly revealed on the very last page and what a message it is. If everyone in the world could read these books and understand that message, what a wonderful and grand place this world could be. It would indeed be a Republic of Heaven. ( )

Lyra and Will are back and still trying to find a way to Lyra's father, Lord Asriel. Lord Asriel's war is fully underway, but the final and decisive battle is still to come. Lyra and Will meet Mary Malone, a friend made in Will's earth, in yet another version of the world. (The jumping around sounds much more confusing that it actually is in the book.) Mary must help them find a way to understand dust and save all the worlds in existence.

Lyra is a character I will always love. She is so realistic to me it's frightening. Will is a bit to steadfast for my taste...almost too stubborn and to be real at times.

I hate to say too much about the plot and ruin it for people who have not yet read the first two. This was a fantastic end to a series. I was sad to see it stop, but completely happy about the way it did. Not all the strings were tied off nice and neat, but that's life, messy. All the plot lines were wrapped up in a way that allowed the characters to have resolution and a continuing purpose beyond the end of the story.

The twists and turns were numerous, but all made sense as they occurred. They were also spaced out in a way that made the story seem more real and believable.

5/5 ( )

The "His Dark Materials" trilogy by Philip Pullman is simply GENIUS! This third book tied all the loose ends together beautifully. I wanted to get to the end to see what would happen and once I reached it, I wished it would continue. I loved these books when I read them to our children (when they were young) and loved it so much more now. These books are fantastic. The audio version is phenomenally read. I wish I could give it more than five stars! It is so deserving. ( )

Just finished book: amber spyglass] and I continued to enjoy mary malone's character and time with the mulefa. The lyra/will adam/eve stuff was a little heavy handed but it is hard to write about archetypal themes and characters with a fine brush instead of a sharpie! ( )