The Amber Spyglass
Ratings638
Average rating4
Not as amazing as the first two, but does a good job wrapping up the series.
WAY too preachy. Completely lost the plot in trying to hit you in the face with his beliefs.
O amor do Will e da Lyra me manteve na ponta dos pés metade do livro. O amor (Mary, Serafina e Coram, Marisa e Lord Asriel, até Iorek e Lyra) de modo geral foi lindo. Claro, o livro é cheio de furos (nota-se o furor religioso do autor deixando confusões antiquadas pros dias de hoje, com bons versus maus, submissão cega à fé e sua incompatibilidade com a vida real e a necessidade dos anjos de explicarem aos pobres personagens o q está acontecendo - mesmo que os anjos apaixonados tenham sido um bom toque). Mas é uma sessão da tarde fofinha.
I contribute my poor rating to the fact that I made a bad decision and read this first, rather than in the specific order it should have been read in. (I was in late elementary/early jr. high, admittedly it was a poor mistake on my part.) The only thing I remember taking from this was that I loathed the ending and the love story that came from it. If there's one thing I'm bad at, it's appreciating a sappy love story.
WOW this was a chonker compared to the other two.
I rated this a four like the others in the trilogy but honestly it fell just a little shorter than that in terms of enjoyment. I felt like the plot was doing a lot of things all over the place and I got a little overwhelmed. Everything still tied together in a way that made sense and wrapped everything up nicely, but I still would've appreciated a little bit less all around.
This book would've been a 3.75 if it weren't for Will and Lyra. They really stole the show in this book and I loved their chapters more than anyone else's. The way they loved each other was so pure despite everything they'd been through and the ending, to keep it spoiler-free, was so bittersweet and I'm so proud of them.
The little love monologue they had at the end when they knew they had to be separated forever made me want to CRY I love them so much.
Mrs. Coulter's and Lord Asriel's ending was satisfying I guess. I liked that they sacrificed themselves to keep Lyra safe but I felt like we needed a bit more build-up to make that believable because even up until the moment it happened they both still came across as utterly selfish and power-hungry and self-absorbed.
All in all I had about as good a time with this book as the other ones. Will be moving onto the other books in the series soon!
3.5 stars.
It was a bit slow in parts and some of the conclusions felt a little forced.
Better than the second book, but my three-star rating is more because the series was over and I feel a sense of accomplishment at having finished it rather than any love for the story itself. Once again, I just cannot feel any sort of connection to Lyra. I'd rather have read three books about the daemons and panserbjørn without Lyra involved.
This book is so painful and makes me ache and makes me weep and love and there's so many things going on I don't know what to focus on
I spend a lot of time reading the books of His Dark Materials and now that I'm done i'm just empty and that's when you know a series was good. The way that you feel empty, almost numb, and not knowing what the hell you were supposed to do now.
I loved the series, all that happened and the ending too, even though it made me ache.
While reading this it felt like the author had decided on an ending to the series after the second book and then tried to make everything that previously happened work in the context of the new direction.
The story felt forced and the character development of Lyra felt like it come from an unintentionally sexist place. The story was going from point to point and the reasoning for the story progressing that way wasn't strong enough for me.
2.5 stars.
This review is also featured on Behind the Pages: The Amber Spyglass
The war grows ever closer as angels and creatures from all the worlds gather to each side to fight for what they believe in. God, or man. Tasked by his father to join Lord Asriel in his war, Will refuses to join until he finds Lyra. With the guidance of two angels, he races to rescue Lyra who lays in a drugged sleep, balancing between the worlds of the living and the dead. It is in this drugged sleep Lyra finds her departed friend, Roger. She swears she will find him again once she wakes. As Will and Lyra are reunited, they will travel through worlds once more, this time on a quest to save the dead.
Will and Lyra are the best characters in this trilogy. When they are on the page, it is guaranteed that the reader will be entertained. Having watched them grow throughout the trilogy, you can see how their previous choices have formed the people they are by the end. And despite the growing odds against them, they don't give up. They always think outside the box and maintain that childhood innocence that makes them believe anything is possible. Even in their darkest moments, they know that if the two of them are together, there will be a light at the end.
While Will and Lyra carried the main plot, I was surprised at the amount of filler the subplots had. Mary's story arc didn't even make sense to me. While it might have been interesting that she journeyed to a new world and made friends with the inhabitants, I couldn't help but wonder what the point was. The events that happened could have easily been summed up in a lesser quantity to tighten the storyline and not lose sight of the main plot. In fact, the namesake the book's title takes after seemed to be dropped in. It wasn't significant like we've seen the golden compass (alethiometer) and the subtle knife. I have a feeling there was hidden symbolism that I missed.
There was also an attempt at a redemption arc for some characters, but after watching one pull apart a living creature for fun that redemption fell short. And I was surprised when the main plot ended, and I saw that I had a decent chunk of pages left. Admittedly the conclusion came faster than expected and was anticlimactic, but I didn't expect the story to continue for so long. I have a feeling Pullman wanted to add in more connections to religion and lost sight of his story's vision. I'm sad to say, I didn't like this conclusion. The first two books were amazing, but this one seemed forced.
Finishing this series is so surreal for me. My parents bought me the trilogy in 2007, but I never got around to it. I let my Opa borrow the books and he never returned them, haha. Finally finishing the series is such a cathartic experience. I highly recommend these books!
Ooh boy it gets very heavy-handed at the end. But I do appreciate how Pullman refuses to pigeonhole his characters and to wrap most things up with a tidy bow—characters who were antagonists early on show some goodness, perhaps even redeeming goodness, and not everybody gets what they want in the end. The wrap-up is full of messaging that I liked but which I suppose I wish were a bit more subtle.
For the most part I did enjoy The Amber Spyglass, but when looking at it a little more critically I find that it delivered so little of what it promised. I see no need to go over ground that other reviews have already covered a thousand times. Suffice it to say that the book died for me about here:
“The Regent was a being whose profound intellect had had thousands of years to deepen and strengthen itself, and whose knowledge extended over a million universes. Nevertheless, at that moment he was blinded by his twin obsessions: to destroy Lyra and to possess her mother.”
like I hear what you're SAYING about how this book went bonkers off the rails
but my HEART says it was still awesome upon re-reading??
I will note that, much like the delicate mental state required to read the alethiometer, I was just trying real hard not to think about gender roles while re-reading? like I think if you dug into it like at all there's some wackness w/r/t sexuality in here but I'm just not thinking about it byeee
Executive Summary: Just as I was starting to really enjoy this book, it turned again and I was just happy to be done with it. That kind of sums up my feelings on the series as a whole too.
Audiobook: The audio is honestly the best part about this. It's fantastic. If you're going to do this book/series, audio is definitely the way to go. Once again you get a full cast, and their are fantastic.
Full Review
I wanted to like this series more, but it just kept letting me down. It's not bad, but based on how many people whose opinions I trust liked it, I expected to like it more. I'm not sure if it's because I'm too old to read this, or if I just fundamentally disagree with some of Mr. Pullman's ideas or what.
I was hoping/expecting a fun series. What I got instead was often frustrating and depressing. I'm not in the school of belief about sugarcoating everything for kids, but this almost seemed to shove the notion that life isn't fair down their throats. Unless you lie. Lying will get you ahead. This book did finally have some consequences for lying, but not nearly as much as their should be. It seems to glorify lying.
Oh and religion is awful and anyone who believes in it is awful too. I'm not even religious, but I have many friends who are, and they wouldn't be my friends if they weren't great people. The level of preaching present in the last two books ramped up to a whole other level.
The part that I liked the best was the middle, and the traveling to the land of the dead. I thought that was a really cool idea. This series had a lot of really cool ideas, but the execution of them just didn't work for me.
The book, like the series wasn't all bad, I think my high expectations played a role in my being pretty underwhelmed. I'm glad I finally read it, but it's not something I'm going to recommend people go out of their way to pick up.
Akhirnya selesai juga baca ini... Tapi kok endingnya sedih ya... seperti Championnya Marie Lu, tp setdknya kedua main protagonistnya ketemu lagi, tapi di Amber Spyglass ini pisah selamanya... Ouch my heart, break into pieces for Lyra & Will. Bakalan lama nih move on nya.... Helep, helep...
A really disappointing conclusion to the otherwise brilliant series. What I really enjoyed in the first two books was the magical feeling I had when I was reading them. The setting was interesting and the plot was not your usual fantasy too. I knew that there was a “bigger picture” and that the author had a message he wanted to convey in his books. On a personal level I actually agree with his opinions, but that doesn't change the fact this book is just not that good. The magical feeling is gone here, character motivations are unclear, meaningless battles, lots of boring filler, grand metaphors falling apart, also one of the new worlds is extremely cringe-worthy... overall a huge disappointment and an unsatisfying ending to the trilogy.
i made it this far into the series, only to find out I didn't actually like it, and quit not even halfway through the last book. boring!