I have so much love for this book. It defines a period of my life when I felt really lost, but Will and Lyra changed my perspective of things. I love the adventure, the interconnection of all the stories, and the ultimate betrayal of Lyra and Pan.

I think it's the richness with which Pullman shapes his characters and worlds that really stands out for me. After three novels, you become so deeply involved with Will, the reluctant warrior, and Lyra, with her passionate and wilful nature, that you can't help but fall in love with them. Even the Mulefa, who we see for the first time in The Amber Spyglass, have such a unique joyful nature and love for life that it's hard to resist their charm. I want to go to the world of the wheel pod trees myself and live there.

To me it's perfect, no matter how many times I read it. It speaks to my soul, which is entirely the point isn't it?

Irritated and inelegant. Sorry!

What a dreadful pile of drivel. UNFINISHED. I didn't even care how the darn thing concludes. AND I feel like I must have been completely wrong to treat the other volumes with such enthusiasm.

Longwinded tripe excruciatingly badly written. After having just finished a Chabon - there is a man who cares about every word he puts to paper - I felt so insulted to read something by somebody who clearly didn't give a brass fuck.

What I don't understand is how this happens? Did he have no editor? Did the editor not give a fuck either? Do authors become so high and mighty that editors don't get to do their thing any more? The point I am making is that authors turn out rubbish all the time, but once you have arrived as a writer, you get somebody on your case that sorts out the rubbish.

Not that this is his worse sin in this book, but seedpod beings. I mean to say. Fuck me dead.

I am cross, in case you didn't notice.

Esta novela representa el cierre de la trilogía, y me ha parecido una muy bonita experiencia literaria, creo que se plantea una idea muy fresca, completa y sólida sobre este mundo fantastico, donde cada una de las 3 novelas se encuentran fuertemente entrelazadas y da la sensación de que la historia planteada en cada novela ya había sido pensada desde antes de concerbir las novelas y no una improvisación sobre la marcha originada por el éxito de la primera novela.
En este tomo vemos a nuestros jóvenes protagonistas tomando decisiones bastante dificiles, definiendo y encausando sus propios destinos, así como restituyendo el equilibrio de los mundos.
Altamente recomendable para amantes de la literatura fantástica juvenil y ligera.

TW// animal death, murder, gore, drugging, mentions of mental illness, mentions of torture, mention of suicide

Note: Philip Pullman has made racist remarks on social media and I don’t support his views. I made a donation to NAACP in order to combat his racism and I encourage all of you to buy used copies of this series instead of new copies so that less money is directly going into his pocket.

I can’t choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose, because now I’m free.

I will not be reading the novellas so this concludes my time with the His Dark Materials series. The Amber Spyglass was a step up from The Subtle Knife, but I still found it to be rather disappointing. The His Dark Materials series started off really strong with The Golden Compass (also known as The Northern Lights) but that strength unfortunately doesn’t continue on with the rest of the series.

My biggest issue with this book is just that I felt so disconnected from all the characters. The Subtle Knife ruined Lyra’s character for me, so I didn’t care much for Lyra anymore and none of the other characters really grabbed my attention. I found that I was just going along for the ride with this one since I didn’t care for any of the characters. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, but it made it so that I no longer cared about what happened to the characters. I found the action scenes in this book enjoyable, but the other scenes were very dull for me since I didn’t like the characters anymore.

There was another issue, too, with how anticlimatic this whole book is. It’s the final book in the series, so you’d expect some big battle but that didn’t really happen. The battle was a tiny section in this book, and each of the battle’s deaths were so uninteresting, like when one of the main “villains” was killed, the characters didn’t even know who it was that they were killing and he wasn’t even exactly killed - it was more like he just doesn’t exist anymore. It was a terrible way to kill of a villain. The two main characters weren’t even active members in the battle. They were passive and they just dealt with things happening to them instead of being involved with the battle. I had hoped for a better action-packed finale to the series’ main conflict.

I also found that several moments in the book left me feeling like this shouldn’t be considered a kid’s book, which is why I have not hidden the trigger warnings in a spoiler tag for this review. For example, there’s a graphic description of a bat getting its wings torn off and there’s a sentence in this book that says “she felt as soft and light in his arms as she had when Lyra was conceived thirteen years before.” Hopefully kids skim over that sentence and don’t ask their parents what being conceived means…

The one part of this book that I really enjoyed was Mary’s scenes and her discoveries with the Mulefa. Had this book focused solely on that plotline, it would’ve been a lot more enjoyable. The Mulefa and their world was described beautifully. Mary’s scientific brain analyzying the Mulefa was fascinating to me as well.

Time to address the religious elements, so if that’s not your thing, feel free to not read the rest of my review.

The religion elements in this story definitely seem to be focused on elements of Abrahamic religions, especially Adam and Eve’s story. The angels are also portrayed in a terrible light, characters denounce religion, and religion is still the villain in this book, so in that sense, this book appears to be anti-religious. Given the specific names of angels in this story and the inclusion of the story of Adam and Eve, it’s also possible to say that this book is against Christianity or just all Abrahamic religions in general. I’m a Christian though, as I’ve said before, and I’m still hesitant to put all my effort into constantly hating on this series because it is quite simply a fictional story that is clearly set in a fantasy world and people should be able to realize that fantasy and fiction are very different things. You can also enjoy content that portrays a message that you disagree because liking the content doesn’t mean you are supporting the message, so liking this series or any series that has anti-religious elements doesn’t mean you’re anti-religious.

Overall The Amber Spyglass was just an okay read. There were parts that I liked and parts that I hated, but I generally had a sense of disappointment with this book since it can in no way compare to the wonderful first book in this series.

n  n    “All the history of human life has been a struggle between wisdom and stupidity.”n  n

n  n    “I stopped believing there was a power of good and a power of evil that were outside us. And I came to believe that good and evil are names for what people do, not for what they are.” n  n

n  n    “I will love you forever; whatever happens. Till I die and after I die, and when I find my way out of the land of the dead, I’ll drift about forever, all my atoms, till I find you again… I’ll be looking for you, every moment, every single moment. And when we do find each other again, we’ll cling together so tight that nothing and no one’ll ever tear us apart. Every atom of me and every atom of you… We’ll live in birds and flowers and dragonflies and pine trees and in clouds and in those little specks of light you see floating in sunbeams… And when they use our atoms to make new lives, they won’t just be able to take one, they’ll have to take two, one of you and one of me, we’ll be joined so tight…”n  n

5.0 to 5.5 stars. Superb and extremely satisfying end to a very original, well written science-fantasy series. This is on my list of top ten YA series of all time (probably top 5). I was greatly impressed by the evolving complexity and scope of the plot from the first book (which was well-written with some original concepts but not necessarily ground-breaking) into a highly original, highly epic, one-of-a-kind reading experience that left me saying WOW at the end. HIGHEST POSSIBLE RECOMMENDATION!!

Nominee: World Fantasy Award for Best Novel (2001)
Nominee: Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel (2001)

You'll get full thoughts on this book in an upcoming episode of Snark Squad Pod.

My overall experience with this book is positive, though there are a couple of things that aren't my fave. The first book in this series continues to be my favorite because of the balance between fantasy elements, plot pace and adventure and themes. The big themes continue to grow throughout the series and by the last book, the plot stalls a bit for things like a drug induced sleep in a cave and Mary Malone sitting and learning stuff. Not that I dislike those things, per se, but it is part of what ultimately makes this a four star vs a five star book for me.

That said, I love Lyra and Will so dang much. I love the ways they've grown and the way that their adventure in this book is truly about what they feel is right and what they need to do. Their travel to the land of the dead was the peak of everything I loved and less than loved about this book. I love why they wanted to go their, I loved their journey through there, I loved the underlying message of living your life to the fullest and arriving to an after-life full of stories. I wasn't clear on why things were the way they were but I appreciate that Lyra showed up to change them.

Always good to see other faves like Iorek and Serafina and the Gallivespians are welcome additions. I will continue to reread these books and I am WAY TOO EXCITED about the upcoming TV show.

I actually finished this book a couple weeks ago. But life outside of goodreads, my general frustrations with the book, and the sense that reading it and thinking about it was contributing to an extended bought of grumpiness kept me from putting any thought or effort towards commenting on it here.
I suppose I should get it over with now. I have to say that reading this book was at times overwhelmingly painful and my main motivation for actually finishing it was to be able to know for myself that there was no redemptive ending (at least in my eyes) to be found. Regardless of how someone may have responded to the anti-religious overtones, the shortfalls in how the characters developed, the simple resolution of problematic relationships between the characters, the disjointed storyline, the questionable timelines when trying to synchronize the disjointed stories, the shortcuts in solving problems, and my general lack of sympathy for any character exhausted me.
But now after time has passed, what I shake my head at most is knowing that although this was apparently set up to be a classic quest type fantasy story the quest was only partially fulfilled (the proposed evil was only weakened not eliminated) and the main characters on this quest a) didn’t know they were on it and b) didn’t really grow through their participation in it. When a problem occurred there consistently appeared some angel or witch or bear or the compass or some other wise being to simply fill them in on what to do or what happened or will happen over the course of a couple paragraphs or pages. They didn’t really have to do much problem solving on their own-yeah they ‘experienced’ much but even then their motivations were generally self serving.
Ahh, I could go on but it’s really not worth my time anymore …I’m just glad it’s over.

Esta foi uma das melhores séries de "fantasia" que li até hoje, embora não seja uma grande leitora deste género e, portanto, a minha base de amostragem não seja provavelmente representativa. Mas achei a série muito original, embora os temas principais - a existência de mundos paralelos, a luta pelo poder - não o sejam. Gostei muito da forma como o autor explora e integra na história temas tão diversos quanto a física, a religião, a mitologia e a evolução biológica. Muito bom.

Major Spoilers ahead. You have been warned...

“You said I was a warrior. You told me that was my nature, and I shouldn’t argue with it. Father, you were wrong. I fought because I had to. I can’t choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose, because now I’m free.”

All very powerful and inspiring yes? Well, yes, I cannot argue with that. Now please find me a twelve year old that who will make that up on the spot and sound like a scholar who has been reading classics all his life. Yep, does not work like that. Just looking at my rating, it is clear that I did not enjoy this book and you may very well disagree with my opinions which is fine, but please remember that they are just opinions, so please do not come attack me.

The Golden Compass truely was a good book. It had a great cast of characters, and a fairly well thought out plot and was set in an interesting world. This book unfortunately has none of those points. This is by all accounts a children’s book, yet it is five hundred pages long and is bogged down with way too many characters and points of view, has about zero pages of action and the most anti climatic end to a series ever.

For pretty much every character, the characterisations were completely awful in about every single way possible. Lyra, who I would like to think is meant to be our main character in this series, which normally means she should be the most important, spend this entire book, fires trapped in a coma for a good 150 pages and spent the rest being submissive the Will, who she has known for what, a few months, maybe? Instead of being the strong character she was in the first book, she has become like this. Oh Will, what should I do I have to ask Will if I can use my Alethiometer. I can’t do anything without him. Which frankly is utterly ridiculous. First off, what human does this, and now what kind of strong, brave twelve year old does this.

But wait, it gets worse. Mrs Coulter, who started off as this brilliant character who was full of wit and appeared to be this amazing tactician like person has suddenly become so complete smitten with her love for Lyra when in the first book she literally made her dæmon attack her. Then she ‘redeems’ herself by helping with Metatron with somehow cancels out all the bad things she has done. Umm, no, life does not work in the way that I murdered dozens of people and then like, I gave this homeless kid five bucks.

Lyra and Will are like twelve years old, have known each other for the shortest amount of time and now, they are effectively banging each other with both of them saying they love each other when the page before, they were just two kids thrown together into this journey. Utter load of rubbish. To begin with, they are twelve years old for crying out loud! It is actually sort of sad to read this kind of stuff considering it was not written in the medieval times. It’s a kids book and you don’t need all of this, I love you crap and then proceed to use that as the final twist of the story, because, well, it didn’t work since I had already lost interest in the entire book and it disgusted me honestly. Also, dæmons can get on with each other as well? Really Pullman, are you aware of how potentially messed up this may be?

After reading three books and some twelve hundred pages, everything is incredibly undeveloped and nothing is exactly defined very well. The war against heaven is not justified apart from the fact that God is ‘evil’ despite the fact that he has supposedly doing nothing for thousands of years now. The ‘villain’ appears for like ten pages and the entire plot revolves around him getting seduced and thrown off a cliff which was so boring and not to mention the fact there was still about one hundred pages to go, but I shouldn’t have worried and instead read about some kids kissing each other and saying how much they love each other. AT TWEVE YEARS OLD!

From what started as a great series, this book simply did not cut it for me at all which is ultimately a real shame, yet there is nothing I can do about it. The ending was absolutely dismal in the events that occurred and was the most boring thing ever. 1/10

(A-) 83% | Very Good
Notes: A sad but necessary ending; its exceptional last chapters may have seemed unconvincing if penned by a lesser writer.

¿Conocen esa mezcla de felicidad y tristeza, ese dulceamargo, que solo los buenos libros pueden dejar? Que aunque pase el tiempo, los sigues recordando, y quisieras que la historia continuara, aunque sabes que se desarrollo justo como debía ser, así me hace sentir "La Materia Oscura"

EL comienzo del final, la tan esperada guerra neoapocalíptica ha llegado, con sus terribles bandos, comandados por Lord Asriel y Metatron...

n  la historia de la vida humana ha consistido en una lucha entre la sabiduría y la estupidez.n

Y mientras la guerra se desarrolla, todos están buscando a Lyra y a Will quienes son los agentes de cambio de este multiverso

Pullman mejora mucho su prosa, nos regresa la personalidad heroica de Lyra y la complementa perfectamente con la de Will, aborda temas inusuales en el género como seres fantásticos homosexuales, y confirma a la Señora Coulter como uno de los mejores personajes femeninos de los que he podido leer, – aun no me decido si la amo o la odio, solo sé que quiero hacer cosas malas con ella.

El gran final, no es para nada como lo había imaginado, pero es un final magnifico, me ha encantado esta saga “infantil” con toda su mezcla de épica, fantasía, ciencia ficción, romance, filosofía, steampunk y su worldbuilding que no hace más que ampliarse tras cada tomo, esta vez con los Mulefa, los Gallivespianos y todo el mundo de los muertos, además de los ya favoritos, Daimonios, brujas, osos polares, chamanes, ángeles, giptanos, el aletiometro, la daga sutil, el artefacto intencional, el catalejo lacado y todo lo demás que de seguro estoy olvidando

Por eso, no solo recomiendo este libro, recomiendo toda la trilogía a todos, Yo siempre la amare.

Para mas de mis reseñas sobre los libros de La Materia Oscura pueden ver los siguientes enlaces:
Luces del norte aquí
La Daga aquí
El Oxford de Lyra aquí