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His Dark Materials: Book Three - The Amber Spyglass

Philip Pullman

Fiction (Series)

Ages 12 and up

Unabridged Audiobook (Cassettes)

Performed by the author and full cast

Listening Library, 2004, 0-807-26201-3

  Will experienced great pain and suffering when several of his fingers were cut off by the subtle knife, but somehow what is happening to him now is much worse. Lyra has been kidnapped by her mother, Mrs. Coulter, and Will’s father is dead. Just at the moment when Will and his father realized that they were father and son, a witch killed the missing explorer. It is all too much, and yet Will does not give up. Instead he gets an angel to agree to help him find Lyra. With the angel grumbling all the while, Will sets off, going he knows not where.

  Meanwhile, Lyra is trapped in a drugged sleep. Every time she tries to waken, her mother, the evil and conniving Mrs. Coulter, puts her back under. As she sleeps Lyra dreams. She dreams that her dead friend Roger is asking for her help. He is in a terrible place, the land of the dead, and he wants Lyra to help him.

  Will is able, with the help of friends, to rescue Lyra and he quickly agrees to go with her to the land of the dead. He understands that she needs to see Roger. She needs to do what she can for her old friend.

  It is a hard journey and once they get to their destination things get even harder. Lyra and Will find that the land of the dead is full of ghosts, sorry creatures who are persecuted by their guards, the harpies. Surely there must be something that Will and Lyra can do to help these poor creatures?

  Meanwhile, far away, Lyra’s father, Lord Asriel, prepares to go to war with the Authority and his Regent, the Metatron. Lord Asriel does not really understand what Lyra is up to and he is impatient with her. But, when he hears that she has gone to the land of the dead, he realizes that his headstrong daughter is special and that everything depends on her succeeding in her efforts.

  This final title in the His Dark Materials series is rich, full of surprises, and it is, at times, quite painful. Good friends and allies die for the cause as Lyra and Will do their best to do what they feel is right. Several stories unfold at the same time until they, and the characters, finally come together for the stunning finale.

  With this trilogy Philip Pullman has created, without a doubt, a work of fiction which will enthrall and tantalize listeners for years to come. The three titles can be enjoyed by both young adults and adults, and they offer up ideas which are both powerful and thought provoking.

  Philip Pullman shows his audience that he is, indeed, a very versatile man. His narration of his own book is superb, and the actors who play the parts of the characters beautifully convey the fear, excitement, happiness, and grief that the characters experience. The production is seamless, and listeners will barely notice the passage of time as they follow the fortunes of Lyra and Will.

 

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