Everand Logo

Welcome to Everand!

  • Discover millions of ebooks, audiobooks, and so much more with a free trial

    Only $11.99/month after trial. Cancel anytime.

    Unavailable
    His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass (Book 3)
    Unavailable
    His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass (Book 3)
    Unavailable
    His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass (Book 3)
    Ebook623 pages9 hours

    His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass (Book 3)

    By Philip Pullman

    4/5

    ()

    Currently unavailable

    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    The unforgettable His Dark Materials trilogy that began with The Golden Compass and continued with The Subtle Knife, reaches its astonishing conclusion in The Amber Spyglass. These modern fantasy classics have been hailed by Entertainment Weekly as an "All-Time Greatest Novel" and Newsweek as a "Top 100 Book of All Time"

    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.

    A #1 New York Times Bestseller
    Winner of the Whitbread Award
    Winner of the British Book Award (Children's)
    Published in 40 Countries

    "Masterful.... This title confirms Pullman's inclusion in the company of C.S. Lewis and Tolkien." —Smithsonian Magazine

    "Pullman has created the last great fantasy masterpiece of the twentieth century. An astounding achievement." —The Cincinnati Enquirer

    "War, politics, magic, science, individual lives and cosmic destinies are all here . . . shaped and assembled into a narrative of tremendous pace by a man with a generous, precise intelligence. I am completely enchanted." —The New York Times Book Review

    "Breathtaking adventure . . . a terrific story, eloquently told." —The Boston Globe

    Don't miss Philip Pullman's epic new trilogy set in the world of His Dark Materials!
    ** THE BOOK OF DUST **
    La Belle Sauvage
    The Secret Commonwealth
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRandom House Publishing Group
    Release dateNov 13, 2001
    ISBN9780375890031
    Unavailable
    His Dark Materials: The Amber Spyglass (Book 3)
    Author

    Philip Pullman

    Philip Pullman (b. 1946) is one of the world’s most acclaimed children’s authors, his bold, brilliant books having set new parameters for what children’s writing can say and do. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy, installments of which have won the Carnegie Medal and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award. In 2003, the trilogy came third in the BBC’s Big Read competition to find the nation’s favorite book, and in 2005 he was awarded the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, an international prize for children’s literature. In 2007, Northern Lights became a major Hollywood film, The Golden Compass, starring Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig. Pullman has published nearly twenty books, and when he’s not writing he likes to play the piano (badly), draw, and make things out of wood.

    Related to His Dark Materials

    Related ebooks

    Children's Action & Adventure For You

    View More
    View More

    Related podcast episodes

    Related articles

    • Article

      Hello Darkness My Old Friend

      Jun 17, 2020

      Hello Darkness My Old Friend
      4 min read

    • Article

      Brimming with Curiosity: On Philip Pullman’s ‘La Belle Sauvage’

      Nov 16, 2017

      Pullman is first and foremost an extremely skillful storyteller—the warmest, fuzziest kind that takes readers by the hand and guides them with sharp prose and a fast moving plot. The post Brimming with Curiosity: On Philip Pullman’s ‘La Belle S

      9 min read

    • Article

      Brimming with Curiosity: On Philip Pullman’s ‘La Belle Sauvage’

      Nov 16, 2017

      Pullman is first and foremost an extremely skillful storyteller—the warmest, fuzziest kind that takes readers by the hand and guides them with sharp prose and a fast moving plot. The post Brimming with Curiosity: On Philip Pullman’s ‘La Belle S

      9 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Jun 16, 2021

      Great Read
      4 min read

    • Article

      Travellers’ Tales

      Oct 7, 2021

      Travellers’ Tales
      1 min read

    • Article

      A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry

      Dec 18, 2020

      Rattling around the house in the County Sligo hills, swinging from bouts of paranoia to moments of strange, demented hilarity, a 900-page doorstopper was just what I needed to stay grounded. The post A Year in Reading: Kevin Barry appeared first on T

      2 min read

    • Article

      Books

      Sep 12, 2022

      Books
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tales From The Countryside

      Dec 14, 2023

      Tales From The Countryside
      7 min read

    • Article

      Carningli

      Mar 22, 2024

      Carningli
      4 min read

    • Article

      On High

      Jul 4, 2021

      On High
      5 min read

    • Article

      Children

      Dec 17, 2021

      Children
      2 min read

    • Article

      Africa’s FOOTHOLD OVER ME

      Oct 7, 2022

      Africa’s FOOTHOLD OVER ME
      7 min read

    • Article

      The Power Of Song

      Sep 16, 2021

      Few male authors write monodies to their mothers and some – Byron, John Osborne, Baudelaire – disliked theirs in print. But Wiltshire farm-born Charlie Corbett has, by taking 12 bird species, written movingly about his mother, Muff, a countrywoman an

      2 min read

    • Article

      The Alchemy of November

      Nov 15, 2017

      The Alchemy of November
      5 min read

    • Article

      It’s Snow Joke

      Mar 25, 2020

      It’s Snow Joke
      4 min read

    • Article

      Worlds Of Ink And Paper

      Nov 22, 2022

      As a young girl, I still remember my dear mother, smile on her face, curled up with Family Circle magazine in her lap. She was engrossed in an article titled “Butternut Wisdom,” written by Gladys Taber. At my age, it didn’t mean a thing to me. But as

      6 min read

    • Article

      A Funny Tome

      Nov 14, 2019

      Everyone loves a doggy painting. My preference lies with hounds but labradors and terriers also clutter the walls. On noticing Susie Green’s book one imagines it stuffed with lovely canine portraits, an echo of that on the cover. It is (there are mor

      2 min read

    • Article

      Great Read

      Feb 23, 2022

      Great Read
      4 min read

    • Article

      Once Upon A Time...

      Sep 1, 2022

      Back in 1992, folklorist, writer and poet Neil Philip published a book called The Penguin Book of English Folktales. Meticulously researched, it was a treasure trove of English folk stories, featuring versions of more than 100 folktales told as they

      1 min read

    • Article

      Worship On High

      Oct 18, 2021

      Worship On High
      5 min read

    • Article

      Peace Comes With A Smile

      Nov 11, 2019

      Peace Comes With A Smile
      8 min read

    • Article

      The Sound Of Spring

      Mar 23, 2022

      The Sound Of Spring
      3 min read

    • Article

      Seeking Solitude

      Oct 13, 2023

      Seeking Solitude
      6 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Nov 6, 2020

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    • Article

      Tom Cunliffe

      Nov 6, 2020

      Tom Cunliffe
      5 min read

    Reviews for His Dark Materials

    4/5

    6,955 ratings295 reviews

    What did you think?

    Tap to rate

    Review must be at least 10 words

    • 5/5
      Definitely the best of the three.
    • 1/5
      I suffered my way through this trilogy as it was "The greatest thing" and concluded that it was only deemed such as the Literati never deign to read Sci-Fi and so thought he dreamt up all the stuff he just re-hashed.
    • 3/5
      I'm glad I read these books, but I don't think I'll be recommending them to anyone.

      I loved the biblical rewriting aspect, and the multi-verses, and daemons, but the actual writing and plot I found weak and confusing. It was okay, but my mind often drifted as I read because there was nothing to pull me in. The land of the dead section was by far the best in the series, but the first book was the most engaging.

      All in all, a decent fantasy series, but not one I'd ever reread.
    • 4/5
      I really enjoyed this final book. I found the alternate worlds lively and inventive and I liked the parallels with quantum physics. I agree with Angela, though - the spunky, brave Lyra is unrecognizable now that she knows Will, which is too bad.
    • 4/5
      In Amber Spyglass, the last installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy, Lyra, who started off as an ordinary kid in The Golden Compass, is seen as the most important child who has ever lived according to the church. Their fate depends on Lyra's journey into womanhood. She may be important but she is also seen as a threat as she is in the position of biblical Eve as the temptress of man's downfall. Heavy, right? Remarkably, young Lyra is on the cusp of introducing the concept of sin (Dust) to the world. She must be stopped before the Dust (sin=evil) takes over. When we first catch up with Lyra in The Amber Spyglass, she has been hidden away and kept drugged and sleeping in a cave by her mother (remember Mrs Coulter?). But. But! But, is Mrs Coulter all that evil? She acts the grieving mother as she recounts how she almost killed Lyra earlier. This is an epic battle between good and evil with lots of fight scenes and dying declarations (just wait until you get to the land of the dead). The references to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden are laid on pretty thick, but Lyra is coming into her own as a young woman and she has an equally adulting young man as her companion...The good news is that many of your favorite characters are back even if they died in an earlier installment. Iorek Byrnison the armored bear is back with his army! I was excited to see the bears and the witches but there are plenty of new creatures like harpies and ghosts. Probably my favorite characters to imagine are Gallivespians. They are small, slender spies able to ride hawks and dragonflies.
    • 4/5
      Ich hatte mit diesem Band etwas zu kämpfen – nach den 1500 Tolino-Seiten der ersten beiden Teile hatte ich eigentlich genug und hätte lieber etwas ganz anderes gelesen.Dafür waren die über tausend Seiten dieses Buchs dann aber doch relativ flott gelesen. Es blieb fast immer spannend, und die beschriebenen Wesen und Welten wurden wieder interessanter als im zweiten Teil, der diesbezüglich doch etwas trockener war als die Bände 1 und 3.Jetzt wird auch endlich klar, welchen großen Kampf die Akteure ausfechten: Es geht um nichts geringeres, als den christlichen Gott zu stürzen, der in der Geschichte in Wahrheit nicht der Schöpfer ist, sondern ein Engel, der die Macht an sich gerissen hat und mehr oder minder für alles Böse in der Welt verantwortlich gemacht wird.Da wird es dann doch recht einseitig. Zwar ist das ein durchaus interessanter Blick auf die Religionsgeschichte, und natürlich ist das organisierte Christentum bis heute für viel Schlechtes auf der Welt direkt verantwortlich. Trotzdem wirkte es auf mich eher seltsam, dass zum Beispiel die Wissenschaftlerin Mary, früher Nonne, erzählt, sie habe irgendwann „entdeckt“, dass Gott nicht existiert, also eine Tatsache behauptet, statt es als die Glaubensfrage darzustellen, die es meiner Meinung nach ist.Das Buch ist aus der Perspektive klarer Anlehnung des Christentums geschrieben, zwar nicht mit der Attitüde eines geifernden Atheismus, aber doch mit der eindeutigen Meinung, das jegliche Form des Christentums immer schon ein Fehler war und ist. Das ist schade, bringt der Autor doch anderen Formen der Spiritualität viel Offenheit und Sympathie entgegen. Hier hätte mir eine etwas ausgewogenere Sicht besser gefallen.Leider sind außerdem manche Inhalte nicht ganz vollständig erklärt und dargestellt. Warum etwa wurde Wills Dæmon plötzlich sichtbar? Was passierte in der großen Schlacht, nachdem der Anführer der Gegenseite vernichtet worden war? Darüberhinaus ist der ganze Teil der Geschichte, der sich um das Reich der Toten dreht, ein wenig seltsam, wirkt wenig durchdacht, passt nicht recht ins philosophische Gesamtkonzept und machte auf mich den Eindruck einer etwas kruden Idee des Autors, die er irgendwie unterbringen wollte, ohne sie so recht auf überzeugende Füße stellen zu können.Ansonsten ist das Buch aber spannend, anrührend und faszinierend. Aufgrund des philosophischen Tiefgangs meine ich, dass Leser mindestens vierzehn Jahre alt sein sollten, um diese Inhalte halbwegs nachvollziehen zu können.Trotz der oben genannten Mängel: Klare Empfehlung für die ganze Trilogie! Interessante Mischung aus relativ einfacher Geschichte mit viel Hintergund und philosophisch-sprituell-wissenschaftlichem Tiefgang.
    • 5/5
      Book 3 His Dark Materials. With the use of the alethiometer and the subtle knife, Will and Lyra travel between different worlds, as the great battle of good versus evil begins and some tough decisions have to be made. An enjoyable trilogy with many layers, and of course reading complemented by the lovely Folio Society edition
    • 5/5
      Love this series -- even better the second time around. This series can be enjoyed at many levels. The plot is quick-paced and the world building is fabulous. But on this second time reading this series, I tried to understand more the themes of Good vs. Evil and Eve, the Garden of Eden and the Serpent. I have to admit, it might take a 3rd reading for me to really get the gist of what Pullman is saying. This would be an excellent series to discuss with a book club!
    • 1/5
      Did not like it.
    • 1/5
      I take back my rants about the Chronicles of Narnia. Yes, Lewis got a bit heavy-handed in his anglo-centric retelling of Christian mythology. It was the height of subtly compared to Pullman.

      It just makes it worse that I actually agree with Pullman's thesis. Across the three novels, I think he's trying to suggest that empirical exploration, focusing on here-and-now is the real purpose of life. He seems to have more distaste for religion than I do, but still - we have a lot in common, philosophically. But that wasn't enough to redeem this trilogy. I found this whole thing terribly disappointing. I'd hoped that, in the final book, he would address some of the really interesting ideas he'd hinted at, but it was not to be.

      For instance - while Lyra spends much of the book lying her way out of trouble, she later has encounters where truth is more important. But the author never does anything with that, it falls to the wayside with most of the other interesting plot threads and themes. We're told that Asriel's great work will fail, but never explore the meaning of that failure, or what happens to those involved. Do the worlds go back to normal? Has this three book epic changed anything? There's no way to know.

      This book, like the the trilogy, fails as literature - the plot is scattered and limp, and the characters aren't enough to make up for it - and fails as a screed. I think I see what the author's trying to preach, but only because I'm in the choir. I don't think this book is going to change any minds, and it's not a particularly satisfying sermon for the already converted.

      P.S. Is it just me, or is the Author replacing a Christian-type god with the divinity of Dust? How else would Lyra have been able to read the alethiometer by Grace, then have to learn it the usual way once "everything was done"? Perhaps that's just a plot hole I'm trying to explain away. Goodness knows this book is full of them.
    • 4/5
      I liked this book less than the first, but far more than the second. For one thing, there were fewer people I viscerally wanted to punch in the face (that's in the good column), but I still missed the Gyptians and the polar settings of the first book.I liked how Mrs. Coulter's character got more complicated, even if I felt in the end that I still didn't really understand her. I got pretty into Mary and the muleta sub-plot, though I wish they'd contributed a bit more in the end. I was, to be honest, a little squicked by Will and Lyra's romance in the end -- it felt a bit out of nowhere, and in my mind the characters were a little young for all that, but maybe I am misremembering how old they were supposed to be.I probably could have left things at just having read the first book and been perfectly happy, though I do like the ending for Lyra -- that was pretty satisfying.
    • 5/5
      I really liked the last book of the trilogy. In many ways these books remind me of King's Dark Tower books. The story really isn't finished at the end of this book, but stories like this seldom are. The first book was ok and I almost stopped with it, but I am glad I didn't.
    • 5/5
      Read this years ago ... loved it.
    • 1/5
      As a Christian, I find it very amusing how people say these books are anti the Christian God, and have to admit that is part of the reason it took me so long to actually try reading them. It is not anti the Christian God, because in this story world the universe was created by the big bang and 'god' is a meglomaniac imposter. So while they are not literally anti God, I did not appreciate how they slandered God, his prophets, and other characters of the bible.
    • 3/5
      The Amber Spyglass is the third and final book in Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. This was a frustrating read. Buried under all the religious ranting is a decent, if confusing, adventure/coming of age story set across multiple worlds. I understand why the church was so upset over this series now. There were some genuinely enjoyable parts to read though there was a lot to wade through to get there. Will, Lyra and their daemons continue to be my favorite parts. I'm glad I finished the series even if I didn't enjoy it as much as I'd hoped.
    • 4/5
      Loved the series... hated the ending. :(
    • 1/5
      Half-baked Blake
    • 4/5
      Mixed feelings about this one. It felt somewhat disjointed to me & I'm not sure I understood exactly what Philip Pullman was trying to say overall. There was a lot of material in this last section of the trilogy, but I didn't feel it was pulled together very well, and it left me with a lot of unanswered questions. He was obviously trying to make a statement about religion, but I didn't come away with a sense of what exactly that statement was and to what purpose many of his characters were put in the story. The climax of the story seemed to fall about 2/3 of the way through the book, and even that wasn't much of a climax. I will say that the book did not end as predictably as I would've expected. And after finishing this trilogy, I will now miss the characters of Lyra and especially Will!
    • 4/5
      An enjoyable conclusion to the His Dark Materials trilogy.
    • 2/5
      This is a very hard book for me to review, because I remember it with such fondness. However, it is by far the weakest entry in the series. The problems of the previous books is compounded in this one. Primarily, Pullman's ambition far outstrips his storytelling ability.The Amber Spyglass is far longer than the previous instalments, yet it moves at a crawl. The plot is fragmented, feeling rushed at some points yet far too slow in others. The theological leanings of The Subtle Knife have now sparked an epic battle between Lord Asriel and the angels, yet we see so little of it. Instead, we follow the young protagonists as they travel between worlds, motivated by dreams and plot conveniences, and spend a lot of time discussing their theories about life, death and faith with characters old and new.The strong theological focus may also put off some younger readers. This book has a very anti-organised religion message and it goes to great lengths to illustrate this again and again. While I argued that you could enjoy the previous books without picking up on this message, this time it's unavoidable as it's deeply rooted in the plot. Yet the novel is very moving and has some memorable scenes. It also isn't a very happy tale. There are a lot of deaths of major characters in the story and even Lyra and Will's story has a sting in its tail. If you don't like sad endings, I'd certainly suggest giving this one a miss.Yet it was the characters that frustrated me the most. The female cast of this novel were especially frustrating. Lyra has "grown up" in this story by basically becoming submissive to Will. She doubts herself and stops doing things without his agreement. When danger strikes, she constantly reaches for him or hides behind him. Really, this annoyed me more than anything. Young Lyra had so many positive features but they all seem to have left her.More annoying still was the fact that every character seems to have fallen in love with Lyra. Even career villains like Mrs Coulter have had sudden changes of heart in this story and will fall over themselves in order to protect her. Really, this was very weak characterisation. It should take more for a character to completely change their attitude to life. Mrs. Coulter has just become a completely different person between books.Anyhow, to conclude, this book is a weak finale to an otherwise enjoyable series. It was just too long and contained a heavy-handed message and weak character development. Hopefully, Pullman will be back on form when the first Book of Dust is released later this year.
    • 5/5
      EVERYTHING HURTS, OKAY?
    • 5/5
      Superb finish to a magical series.
    • 4/5
      I read this as a child and was completely caught up by the magic of it. I have fond memories of playing elaborately constructed games set in Pullman's universe with my friends--we had such fun inventing daemons for ourselves! Any book that inspires excellent childhood games is automatically excellent. I've tried to reread it as a grownup and cannot bear: the underlying antireligious didactics are at constant danger of destroying aforementioned fond memories. Even when I sort of agree with Pullman in theory I just can't stand all of the real-world drama and controversy; I just want fierce, fantastic Lyra and dear Will with their marvelous adventures immaculate forever in my memory.
    • 4/5
      Good fantasy - what the genre should be. Mind-expanding and a journey.
    • 4/5
      A great read! Entertaining and strange. The strongest attraction here is the characters. Finally finished this 2/9. I had put off reading the last chapter simply because I had enjoyed reading it so much and didn't want to be over. This book was by no means perfect - various things about it bothered me... but even so, it was so enjoyable. Will reread.
    • 5/5
      The first book starts of a bit slow, but it speeds up until I found I couldn't put it down. There are fascinating concepts that guaranteed you wouldn't have heard of before that really make you think even once you've put the book down. As a few people have already said, strongly religious people might object to it. I've read all three books twice and it is definitely one of my favourite series!
    • 5/5
      Compelling, heartbreaking and dealing with themes fundamental to our humanity. One of the greatest works of the imagination ever set in print.
    • 4/5
      I totally enjoyed this trilogy. Wish that hollywood would have made the sequals no matter the controversary. Throughout the books, since i had seen ths Golden Compass, I compltetely saw Kidman in the femme fatale role. So convincing she was in the film that I could not have envisioned anyone else doing a better job.
    • 3/5
      Not a bad take on epic fantasy, and he at least puts some real thought and ideas into the world he creates, but it ended up feeling highly overrated to me. Characterization was a bit weaker than I think his boosters acknowledge.
    • 4/5
      A great trilogy, would have been better if more viciously edited. The hell/purgatory sequences added almost nothing except a layer of misery