The Amber Spyglass: His Dark Materials, Book 3

The book itself is well written. The story and characters are good. The world building is superb but I'm giving it 4 stars rather than 5 because it seems like the entire trilogy is intended to criticize Christianity except that the author gets it wrong.When you get quotes like:"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." (Location 6025)You get the real reason that the author is writing. Not to tell a story but to criticize a caricature of Christianity. Unfortunately, what he's attacking isn't Christian (or even Biblical). The Magisterium is not the Catholic church, his angels aren't the angels of the Bible, and his "God" isn't the God that Christians worship."The Authority, God, the Creator, the Lord, Yahweh, El, Adonai, the King, the Father, the Almighty -- those were all names he gave himself. He was never the creator. He was an angel like ourselves -- the first angel, true, the most powerful, but he was formed of Dust as we are..." (Location 580)The author isn't describing God but a convenient straw man that he can criticize.The theology of the book (series), like Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale, is a highly skewed exaggeration of "Christianity" that is then very easy for the story to criticize. This is basically the Tower of Babel except that that the "god" and the "church" of the books isn't at all like Christianity (well, it may resemble certain aspects of *medieval* Roman Catholicism like the Inquisition but not historical Christianity as a whole) and therefore just falls apart. It almost sounds like wishful thinking on the part of the author of an otherwise entertaining set of books.

I found this book rather boring and a quite confusing... it seems like the author added a lot of stuff, got lost in his story line, and just tried to wrap up the series as best that he could... too many types of characters, a strange use of parallel universes that failed in the end, and an approach to Dark Matter that tries to be mythical - or religious - that just didn't make it for me.. the first two books were very good and were hard to put down.. the last one was a drudge to read and I finished it just to see how it would end (which is probably the only reason to read it). sorry... it started off really good and just got lost...

Volume three of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy, "The Amber Spyglass" begins with Lyra Silvertongue simultaneously at the mercy and in the care of her mother, Mrs. Coulter, who is in turmoil, as she recognizes the love she feels for her daughter is in direct conflict with everything for which she has ever plotted and schemed. Meanwhile, Will Parry, newly devastated by the death of his father, searches for her.The story that follows finds the two of them reunited, but pursued by malevolence in an increasingly chaotic universe, as the veils between the worlds grows thinner, and a war between Lord Asriel's upstart army and the forces of The Authority itself begins to grow. Lyra and Will will travel to the land of the dead, learn what it is like to live without their daemons, and fundamentally change the forces underpinning all of creation.There are big ideas within "The Amber Spyglass", taking the story of "His Dark Materials" into realms beyond that of young adult fantasy-adventure. The author takes on the cruelties and tyranny of organized religion, lifts up compassion as the highest of virtues, and ultimately imagines a universe in which there is no Kingdom of Heaven, but instead a Republic. All of the elements that have made the prior books so successful remain - fast-paced adventure, sympathetic characters, and richly-imagined worlds - but there is a lesson here, too, on individual morality, our duty to one another, and doing our best to make things better, no matter who, or where, we are.

This is a challenge to get through and one hat requires a good deal of thought on the part of the reader. It is well worth the effort. Pullman's views on organized religion are a challenge to anybody of faith, but it needs to be kept in mind that he is not opposed to a particular faith, merely to the limits that religion can put on consciousness, knowledge and curiosity. The passage of the dead to their release into the living world, where they are liberated and made part of new life, is intriguing. Especially so in the description of the reuniting of the parts of Lee Scoresby with his beloved daemon, Hester. This is my third time reading the trilogy, this time to my 13 year old grandson who amazed me with his insights and understanding of the plot. I am just about to start reading the first book of the next trilogy to him, La Belle Sauvage.

I enjoyed this trilogy mostly because of the author's originality. There is a blend here of fantasy, realism, science fiction and religious ideas that make for an interesting read. The two key child characters are admirable, and so are many others. What holds this back from being great (in my opinion), is a lack of immediacy to the characters feelings, poor/insufficient descriptive writing and a complete lack of explanation for the important character's gifts/powers/abilities. There are no meaningful descriptions of a system of magic or sources of personal power. Despite the flaws, however, I enjoyed the books and their view of organized religion, especially in this final book.

An excellent read and conclusion to Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series.After the cliffhanger ending from the previous book, 'The Amber Spyglass' picks up the pieces with Mrs Coulter holed up in a cave 'looking after' a sedated Lyra, and Will, still smarting from the death of his father and the disappearance of Lyra, is now accompanied by a pair of angels in his search for her, and with the Subtle Knife still in his possession, Will must travel through other worlds in order to rescue Lyra before the Magisterium can get to her.As Pullman's trilogy has progressed, so the tone of the story has gotten that little bit darker with each subsequent book (Not least because we visit the land of the dead here, which also happened to be one of my favourite sequences in the book), but so much so, that 'The Amber Spyglass' feels so far removed and more sedate than the beginning of Lyra's journey in the more action packed and faster paced 'Northern Lights / The Golden Compass'. The pace here was a lot slower and as a result I felt the story was given more time to grow and flesh out the details more. As such, it felt like the story matured alongside Lyra as she became of age. The slower momentum of the story isn't a complaint, far from it, but just an observation, as it certainly drew me more into narrative and into the characters of Will and Lyra.We also meet some familiar faces that we've gotten to know over the course of the trilogy, which was very welcome, as well as some new ones too. Pullman gives his characters very human qualities, not completely black and white, good or bad, but somewhere in between that it sometimes twists your expectations of what to expect from certain characters, adding many layers of depth to his characterizations. Even with Will and Lyra, the 'young and innocent' protagonists, they have to do what it takes to fulfil their quest, even if it means lying, threaten and even kill!There is also more of Pullman's theological exploration, as Lord Asriel's war on the Magisterium and The Authority gathers pace to its conclusion. Although I lean towards the atheist aspect, and agree with Lord Asriel's point of view of enlightenment over blind obedience, he still comes across as a most unlikeable character, very cold and calculated, even towards his wife and daughter. Whereas my assumptions of Marisa Coulter were turned on it's head completely and I had more empathy for her by the end. A mother doing what she must to protect her daughter.And the ending is such a bittersweet one. After all that Lyra and Will have gone through, and with it being classed as a younger readers book, you might have at least expected some kind of happy ever after. Almost but not quite, as what we got was heartbreaking. I closed the book glassy eyed but still with a smile on my face, as two of my favourite book characters, Lyra Balacqua and Will Parry, came to the end of their quest on that park bench in Oxford's Botanical Gardens.All credit to Philip Pullman for a wonderfully written journey, with such memorable characters. And with his new 'The Book Of Dust' trilogy, we get to see Lyra and revisit this world again. I can't wait.

And so we come to the final novel in Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. After the exciting events that were left up in the air somewhat, from The Subtle Knife, so we follow the characters we already know, and some new ones on more adventure and excitement. What is really good about this series is that it works just as well for us adults, as it does for children, although of course we can pick up on certain nuances and themes that will probably be overlooked by younger minds.Here then Lyra and Will have become separated, but Will is determined to find Lyra and assist her. But with others trying to influence and manipulate Lyra into doing what they want done, what path will she choose? We know that there is one thing that she wants to try and sort out, but will that be successful or not? And as the Church on Lyra’s world are involved so we can see here how church politics work, with more than one faction trying to gain power and decide the best course of action, something which we know happens from looking at church history.Taking in metaphysics, theoretical and real maths and physics, so of course theology appears as another theme, along with the more down to earth themes of friendship, love and compassion, along with empathy. As the two main sides match up for a fight over Heaven, so we find out more about the person calling himself God, and what he really is. Mirroring our own world, so we can see how lies, propaganda and manipulation always goes on, and of course we can quite clearly see this at the moment with Brexit, and with this story as a whole, so we can wonder over why so many people can believe lies even when the truth is staring them in the face.It has been some years since I last read these books, which I originally had in paperback and passed onto someone else, so it was good to get reacquainted with this story with the kindle editions. Really there isn’t anything to dislike with any of the books in the trilogy, and if they make more people interested for instance in both Milton’s wonderful Paradise Lost, and Blake’s poetry they are doing a service, but also they could encourage younger minds to take more seriously maths and physics, plus philosophy, and hopefully they will be able to build a brighter future than unfortunately we are leaving them currently with.

I found this third volume of the trilogy disappointing. The first two were well paced and thought provoking and The Amber Spyglass started in the same wayHowever my view is that it is about 100 pages too long. The plot starts to meander when Lyra and Will travel to the realm of the dead and two subplots confuse the story even more, the Mary Molloy sequences are tedious and difficult to see their relevance and the long drawn out attempts to assassinate Lyra are implausible. It takes an incredible bomb, a highly trained priest assassin and various other nasties all operating independently and they all fail in the end! I skipped large chunks towards the end and only felt on sure ground with the final parting of Wiil and Lyra.

I loved the trilogy from start to finish. Read them all in a couple of weeks and I wish there were more in the series. A series that makes you wish for magic and adventure to be sure. Rather late to the party and wished I'd known of them sooner, I think i might even like them more than the Harry potter books (and this is coming from someone wearing HP socks as I write) I wish these books were more well known, they deserve to be as big as HP.

I like Pullman as a writer, he has real skill in character and plot development.Of this particular trilogy book two has always been, and remains my favourite. It concerns itself with Lyra and Will's developing friendship which is well crafted by Pullman; also the main plots really kicks of.As a fan I would recommend the BBC/HBO mini series which is an excellent adaptation. If your view of the books is only affected by that terrible film adaptation `The Golden Compus' give both a try you will be I am sure pleasantly surprised.Amazon supplied the book. Arrived well before the stated time, securely packaged.