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| The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials) | 
 enlarge | Author: Philip Pullman
Publisher: Scholastic
Category: Book
List Price: £7.99
Buy Used: £1.55
You Save: £6.44 (81%)
New (35) from £2.47
Avg. Customer Rating:  336 reviews
Sales Rank: 7587
Media: Paperback
Edition: New Paperback Junior Ed
Pages: 544
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 7.7 x 4.9 x 1.5
ISBN: 0439944686
EAN: 9780439944687
ASIN: 0439944686
Publication Date: March 5, 2007
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Condition: Little River Books dispatch daily from South Wales. Customer satisfaction is our guarantee.
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| Customer Reviews:
 eventual satisfaction May 19, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Some of the reviews of 'His Dark Materials' seem to show disappointment that a promising Potter-esque fairytale concludes with a fractured essay on existence. For me, it has the opposite effect. 'Northern Lights' was OK, but it never really grabbed me. I kept going because I trusted that the series would eventually say something, and it did.
'The Amber Spyglass' is a wonderful meditation on the nature of life. It is healthily anti-theist without ever making its message obvious and preachy. The chapters concerning Mary Malone's stay in a bizarre parallel world could have been an irritating diversion, but they're the most beautiful, convincing passages of the whole trilogy. If they ever get round to filming it, they'll have a tough job converting it into a family-friendly Christmas movie.
Easily the most satisfying book of the three.
 A great disappointment April 6, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
I have just finished reading this final book in the trilogy & frankly I feel cheated at the abrupt and unsuprising ending! I enjoyed the first book & agree with other comments that it is best read as a stand alone novel. The second book is merely a middle section, but unfortunately this final novel does not really draw a satisfactory conclusion after the build up of the 3 books! I do not agree with others that the love between Lyra & Will was a suprise as it had been obvious to me since their meeting. However after the entire story had been built around these two pivotal characters I had at least expected a spectacular conclusion which tied together the many threads of the story. Unfortunately it appears that the author simply ran out of ideas and after fighting many insurmountable obstacles our hero & heroine simply bow out like little lambs. It seems a shame that after all the complex themes of the book the ending was such an anti-climax
one of my best beloved series April 6, 2008
I've just finished Philip Pullan's trilogy, His Dark Materials Series and I think it is one of the best books I've ever read. The plot is deep and dense with moral themes to it as well. I rate this book a good five stars
 A poor ending to a thought provoking trilogy March 20, 2008
2 out of 8 found this review helpful
Whilst I enjoyed 'Northern Lights' as an interesting, pleasantly entertaining piece of fantasy writing, I became increasingly disappointed as the trilogy progressed. Once the action shifted into 'our world' in the 'Subtle Knife', I had difficulty viewing it as a piece of fantasy and then by the 3rd book, once Pullman had began his anti-christianity diatribe at the expense of meaningful story and plot, I was completely underwhelmed. As a Christian, it would be easy to feel threatened by the book that points to Satan as the saviour of all worlds but it is not that good a book to be remotely bothered by!
 I must be missing something. February 18, 2008
4 out of 14 found this review helpful
I'm not going to beat around the bush with this review. This book was awful! I had gone into the series with much trepidation because no-one, and I repeat no-one with whom I had discussed the series, had liked it. However I must admit to rather enjoying the first book - The Golden Compass. It moved along at a reasonable pace, the story was taut and I could identify with enough of the characters to ensure that I read it quickly and was eager to move onto The Subtle Knife. This was more disappointing than the first with a number of bits that didn't seem to make much sense but that was nothing to what transpired in the final volume - The Amber Spyglass. Almost nothing in the final book made any sense whatsoever. Characters and events introduced with no warning and with no necessity. The 'story' seemed to fly off at too many tangents to be coherent and I had frankly lost all empathy with the lead characters before the book's ending. However I do think that the ending has something to recommend it. It was the end and I will NEVER have to re-visit this series again. My recommendation? Read the first volume and pretend that it's a stand-alone book and never dirty your bookshelves with the remaining two.
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