The Amber Spyglass
The Amber Spyglass is the third book in the Philip Pullman series His Dark Materials. I would give this book a 9.9 out of 10 because it is excellent, but kind of leaves you wondering what happens in the end. I give the series a 10 out of 10, and it has earned its place in my favorite collection of books, along with Harry Potter and Artemis Fowl.
The Amber Spyglass picks up with Lyra and Will planning to go to the land of the dead to apologize to Roger because Lyra caused his death. Will also goes along to talk to his father.
When they reach the land of the dead, they are told they must leave their daemons behind. Lyra decided that she had to, and Will didn’t know his daemon so he went along too. When Lyra and Will met up with Roger and Will’s father, they plan to help the ghosts escape from the land of the dead. With the help of some harpies, they manage to reach the surface. Will cuts a hole into another world, and the ghosts leave, spreading their atoms into every thing in the worlds.
Meanwhile, in another world, Mary Malone (a doctor from Will’s world) created an Amber Spyglass - a spyglass that can see Dust. She uses it to see that the Dust is being drained from the world. She tries to figure out why the Dust is leaving.
When Will and Lyra are searching for their daemons after freeing the ghosts, they reach the world Mary Malone is in. While they in this world, they realize they love each other. When this happens, the Dust stops draining from the world. Will and Lyra discover that the reason the Dust was draining was because the knife Will had left many inter-world windows, and these all drained into a dark abyss that sucks up Dust. In order to stop this, Will must close all the windows that the knife made.
Lyra and Will decide that they can’t protect the worlds and see each other, so they each go back to their own worlds, despite the fact that they are in love.
I liked this book although I thought it left a few questions, like what the dark abyss was, and what happens to Will and Lyra. I love this series, and it is now one of my all-time favorites.
Hey! I thought you were going to give me the books so that I could read them!
Posted by: Betsy at April 5, 2005 11:12 PMYou go, Mogul!
Betsy, do read these -- I thought they were great.
Posted by: Penny at April 6, 2005 11:49 AMWhat makes a book "excellent" for you? Is it the actual plot or the way it is written? What criteria do you use to determine whether a book is worth reading or not?
What makes a book good for me is it's pull factor, or its ability to make me want to read more.
Posted by: Da Mogul at April 6, 2005 09:03 PMDid you read the Lemony Snickets books? What do you think about how 'dark' some of the popular books are?
One series you might like is by
Garth Nix - The Abhorsen series.
I never read the Lemony Snicket books. I heard about how it being really negative, and I don't like really sad and negative books.
Your reading interests seem to mimic my son's. You might want to try the Robert Jordan series - I think they are called "The Wheel of Time" Series or something like that. Also, you might enjoy Ender's Game, unsure of the author.
It's always fun to find a fellow reader.
Posted by: Angela at April 8, 2005 01:13 PM