The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, Book 3)

By Philip Pullman

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “BREATHTAKING.”—The Boston Globe • An Entertainment Weekly All-Time Greatest Novel • A Newsweek Top 100 Book of All Time • Winner of the Costa Award and the British Book Award • A Kirkus Reviews Best Young Adult Book of the Century • The Inspiration for the HBO Original Series His Dark Materials DON’T MISS THE EPIC FINALE TO LYRA’S STORY: THE ROSE FIELD, AVAILABLE NOW! The astonishing conclusion to the trilogy that began with the modern fantasy classic The Golden Compass. “War, politics, magic, science, individual lives and cosmic destinies are all here . . . assembled into a narrative of tremendous pace by a man with a generous, precise intelligence.”—The New York Times Book Review Throughout the worlds, the forces of both heaven and hell are mustering to take part in Lord Asriel’s audacious rebellion. Each player in this epic drama has a role to play—and a sacrifice to make. Witches, angels, spies, assassins, tempters, and pretenders—no one will remain unscathed. Lyra and Will have the most dangerous task of all. They must journey to a gray-lit world where no living soul has ever gone and from which there is no escape. As war rages and Dust drains from the sky, the fate of the living—and the dead—comes to depend on Lyra and Will. On the choices they make in love, and for love, forevermore. Look for the modern fantasy classics of HIS DARK MATERIALS: The Golden Compass • The Subtle Knife • The Amber Spyglass And Lyra’s adventures continue in THE BOOK OF DUST: La Belle Sauvage • The Secret Commonwealth • The Rose Field

BUY THE BOOK

Published Oct 10, 2000

544 pages

Average rating: 8.33

6 RATINGS

|

|

BOOK TALK

Community Reviews

Stephanie S.
This was some bizarre stuff.

(I read this a long time ago, so I can't guarantee my review is fair)
Reading this, I took everything as it was, not as an allegory---in the world of the series, daemons really were part of the soul, and so forth---but it was still bizarre.

As examples, dead people, once brought back to Earth, simply dissipate; quadrupeds which I presume resemble mules (judging by the name) have wheels made of nuts (or was it fruits?) on their feet; daemons can't go into the land of the dead for no specified reason, shapeshifting daemons stick in one form upon their humans' reaching adulthood, (ostensibly because adults are less capricious and are stuck in their ways, with their daemons reflecting that) and Lyra and Will's daemons don't even stick at a cool or even (in Lyra's case) a convenient form, and Lyra can no longer read the Compass because she has lost grace, which will take a lifetime to recover.

I didn't pick up on the purported atheist leanings. To be honest, any sort of religious leaning in books bothers me. (Even Chance Fortune---while possessed in Chance Fortune in the Shadow Zone---professing "He [God] only takes" bothered me) The Last Battle---the last book in the Narnia series---had a similar "religious revelation" theme that's as surreal and unsatisfying as this one.

Shahna
4/10 stars
I still don’t like it. I find this story boring and there is so much going on. I feel like some of this could have been cut out. There are too many characters to follow. Ugh.

See why thousands of readers are using Bookclubs to stay connected.