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Amber Spyglass
  
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Amber Spyglass (School & Library Binding)

by Philip Pullman (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (708 customer reviews)

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1 new from CDN$ 61.84 3 used from CDN$ 40.01

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Product Details

Product Description

From Amazon.co.uk

Philip Pullman brings The Amber Spyglass to the spellbinding His Dark Materials sequence, which dazzles everyone who reads it, children and adults alike. After the original Northern Lights, he kept up the quality in The Subtle Knife, the second title in the trilogy. Now he brings the series to an extraordinary conclusion. Will and Lyra, the two children at the heart of the books, have become separated amidst great dangers. Can they find each other, and their friends? Then complete their mysterious quest before it's too late? The great rebellion against the dark powers that hold Lyra's world, and many others, in thrall is nearing its climax. She and Will have crucial parts to play, but they don't know what it is that they must do, and terrible powers are hunting them down.

The pace of the book is compelling, the writing powerful. Pullman's plotting is intricate and cunning, surprising the reader again and again. Perhaps what is most striking of all, however, is the depth of the characterisation. Lord Asriel, Mrs Coulter, Iorek Byrnison the king of the armoured bears, a host of minor characters, most of all Will and Lyra themselves: the book is a library of beautifully drawn, remarkably convincing characters walking in worlds of marvels.

In this volume the cosmic dimensions of the story become more prominent, as a great conflict across many universes comes to a head--how well the narrative sustains such immensely weighty resonances is a question critics may well disagree on. The author's beliefs also come more into the open, and with them a polemic anti-religious theme that will please some readers and alienate others.

Philip Pullman's writing commands immense respect; more than that, it is raising the profile of the best children's books among adults, as demanding critics of all ages fall in love with this remarkable trilogy. --David Pickering --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.



From Publishers Weekly

In concluding the spellbinding His Dark Materials trilogy, Pullman produces what may well be the most controversial children's book of recent years. The witch Serafina Pekkala, quoting an angel, sums up the central theme: "All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity. The rebel angels, the followers of wisdom, have always tried to open minds; the Authority and his churches have always tried to keep them closed." Early on, this "Authority" is explicitly identified as the Judeo-Christian God, and he is far from omnipotent: his Kingdom is ruled by a regent. The cosmic battle to overthrow the Kingdom is only one of the many epic sequences in this novelAso much happens, and the action is split among so many different imagined worlds, that readers will have to work hard to keep up with Pullman. In the opening, for example, Lyra is being hidden and kept in a drugged sleep in a Himalayan cave by her mother, the beautiful and treacherous Mrs. Coulter. Will is guided by two angels across different worlds to find Lyra. The physicist and former nun, Mary Malone, sojourns in an alternatively evolved world. In yet another universe, Lord Asriel has assembled a great horde of otherworldly beings-including the vividly imagined race of haughty, hand-high warriors called GallivespiansAto bring down the Kingdom. Along the way, Pullman riffs on the elemental chords of classical myth and fairy tale. While some sections seem rushed and the prose is not always as brightly polished as fans might expect, Pullman's exuberant work stays rigorously true to its own internal structure. Stirring and highly provocative. Ages 12-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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Amber Spyglass
65% buy the item featured on this page:
Amber Spyglass 4.3 out of 5 stars (708)
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CDN$ 25.04
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Customer Reviews

708 Reviews
5 star:
 (472)
4 star:
 (93)
3 star:
 (57)
2 star:
 (35)
1 star:
 (51)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (708 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most helpful customer reviews

 
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars The Unsubtle Pen, Nov 27 2002
By David Finkle "aka Mr. Fitz" (USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: The Amber Spyglass: His Dark Materials - Book III (Mass Market Paperback)
Why this book has received the awards and acclaim it has is simply beyond me. I loved The Golden Compass, and liked the Subtle Knife, but I would rename this third volume The Unsubtle Author. It is simply the most disappointing ending to a series I have ever read. There are holes in the plot big enough to drive an alternate universe through, thematic inconsistencies (how can the angels envy humans' material bodies if they are made of matter, too?), and worst of all, Pullman bashes us over the head with his anti-religion message, tacking on platitudes (Don't worry! Be cheerful!) to try to end his book on a positive note. His anti-authority/pro-knowledge message is ruined by the fact that nearly every piece of knowledge the charcters receive comes from some authority figure: a father, or an angel tells them about the nature of the spectres, or of "god", and they accept it without question? This is the quest for knowledge? Even at the end, they are still relying on magical devices rather than their own intellect to tell them the truth. The climax of the book tries to equate carnal knowledge with intellectual knowledge, and that is, to anyone who has ever taught a hormonal 7th grader who can't focus on school work, as Pullman would say, "a lie."
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars (...), Dec 26 2001
By "brn2crz" (Venezuela) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Amber Spyglass: His Dark Materials - Book III (Mass Market Paperback)
The series began well inviting me into a world of intrigue and fantasy, always dangling a new question ahead, tempting one further down the path. Unfortunately the final volumne, The Amber Spyglass, rattles and clunks it's way downward losing parts and pieces along the road of fantasy as if the author had created such just to bring one to a rude awakening. It arrives naked at it's final destination stripped bare of any redeeming plot or even the pretense of assuming one. It is unendurable as the book becomes a pulpit from which the author delivers his own accumulated personal payload of adolescent bile and political/religious babble. One can hear him saying "Forget the book, now that I have you this far, this is what I really wanted to say." It's like watching the window roll down as the car rolls to a stop and the gentleman inside does his sweetly perverted best to lure children within reach of his dark and subtle grasp. This isn't a children's fantasy trilogy. It's literary molestation.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars Very Shabby. I was disappointed., Oct 27 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: The Amber Spyglass: His Dark Materials: His Dark Materials - Book III (Hardcover)
This book left me very disappointed. It dragged on and on. Phillip Pullman had so much potential, but he threw it all down the drain. Personally, I feel that Will ruined the story. Lyra was a solid enough character, and many of my friends, both boys and girls, thought that Pantalaimon was enough of a male influence to suffice. I was particularily disappointed when they abandoned Pantalaimon. He was my favorite character, and I was ready to stop reading once he was gone. Also, it was very rude of Will to just jump on Lyra and start kissing her. Now that was disgusting.
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 		 Most recent customer reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant and disappointing
This book, the last of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, was disappointing in that it didn't, to me, show the big picture clearly. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Chris

3.0 out of 5 stars The Temptation of Lyra *SPOILER*
I thought I agreed with everyone that this last book in the series was a complete disappointment. BUT.... Read more
Published 23 months ago by Lyndsie Schnoor

1.0 out of 5 stars A huge disappointment
I loved the Golden Compass and the Subtle Knife but this book disappointed me terribly. I was outraged. Read more
Published 23 months ago by Andy

3.0 out of 5 stars The real value of this book is not to be found as a standalone, but rather as the conclusion of an outstanding triology...
"The amber spyglass" is the third and last book in Phillip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" triology. It is good, but not nearly as engaging as the previous two books in the series,... Read more
Published on Jan 5 2007 by bel_78

4.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable.
This is the third and last book in the His Dark Materials trilogy (after Northern Lights, or The Golden Compass in the US, and The Subtle Knife). Read more
Published on Jul 30 2004 by Stephanie Noverraz

1.0 out of 5 stars soppy and nonsensical
I'm sorry to say that Pullman's main achievement in this last book is to create yet another soppy paean to adolescence. Read more
Published on Jul 15 2004 by theskeptic

1.0 out of 5 stars Riveted.....and then sooooo disappointed!!!!
The first two books of this series were wonderfully written, fast paced marvels that held me riveted by the hour - I couldn't put them down. Read more
Published on Jul 14 2004

4.0 out of 5 stars GOOD-but terribly SAD
Ok, this was a GREAT book, but I happened to find one MAJOR flaw in it. The ending. Not that it did not make sense, only that, it sucked. Read more
Published on Jul 2 2004 by Lee Ann Million

1.0 out of 5 stars There be Yoghurt in them there pages.
(...)That's better. Sorry about that. Just taking out the theological shovel the Reverend Pullman had jabbed into my mouth. Read more
Published on Jun 18 2004 by Mr. Sa Fyfe

2.0 out of 5 stars Whoa...li'l outta control here.
Got hooked on the first 2 books...great books, original storeyline, great writing.

This one got bizarre.

So many loose ends, unanswered questions and religious comparisons. Read more

Published on Jun 15 2004 by SouthernFried

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