The Amber Spyglass: His Dark Materials, Book 3 (Audio Download): Philip Pullman, Ruth Wilson, Penguin Audio: Amazon.co.uk: Books
The definitive production of The Amber Spyglass, narrated by Ruth Wilson, star of the major BBC series His Dark Materials. This recording features a bonus conversation between Ruth Wilson and Philip Pullman.
“We’re going to the land of the dead and we’re going to come back.”
Will and Lyra, whose fates are bound together by powers beyond their own worlds, have been violently separated.
But they must find each other, for ahead of them lies the greatest war that has ever been – and a journey to a dark place from which no one has ever returned….
The third volume in Philip Pullman’s multi award-wining His Dark Materials trilogy.
Ruth Wilson is an award-winning actress, best known for her roles in His Dark Materials, Luther, Mrs Wilson and The Affair. She won universal acclaim, and the BAFTA Cymru Award for Best Actress for her portrayal of Mrs Coulter in the BBC adaptation of His Dark Materials.
Also available in His Dark Materials, read by Ruth Wilson:
Northern Lights.
The Subtle Knife.
Brought to you by Penguin.
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by flowerbed
First of all, let me just say that this is tree of the best books I’ve ever read.
Book one (Northern Lights) is just awesome.
Book two (Subtle Knife) is bloody genious.
Book tree (Amber Spyglass) is topping it all of, and a great end to a great trilogy!
The appearance of this box set is very nice. The art and graphics on the covers are beautiful, and the only thing that would be better was if it was available in a hardcover edition.
The book revolves around the girl Lyra Belaqua, who sets out to rescue a friend who has been kidnapped. What she does not know is that she is to play a crucial part in saving both her and all other worlds.
The world in which the story is set is one very much like our own, but slightly different. The books gives you a very good introduction as to how the universe(s) work, but I can say that it builds on the theories of multiple universes / dimensions, where certain events and decisions spawns a new universe which affect how the world in that universe evolves. (Don’t really know just how to explain this).
I would not call it fantasy or sci-fi, but rather something in between.
Anyway, if you enjoy fiction at all, I would strongly recommend these books. And after having read them, I must say that I do envy those of you who have yet to read them for the first time. The endings of the last two books, and especially the ending of book tree, are just beautiful, and made me almost start crying in public on an airplane.
by Jane Farries
I heard a reviewer say he wished he’d been younger when Pullman’s trilogy came out. I disagree — I’m glad I was an adult and had some higher learning under my belt, just to appreciate the sheer magnitude of the imagination behind this saga. What’s better is that all my childhood love of fantasy and adventure roared back to life. I still think about having my own daemon, years after I first read this series. Brilliant work.
by elena
I have looking for a long time after the Philipe Pullman audiobook, His Dark Materials. I found this one one a bargain and I just bought it. There are 12 CD for the third book, The Amber Glass, and I will look for the other 2 books too. The audio is great, I just love the book and the audio. Phillip Pullman is one of my favourite writers!
by Edmundo Zarate Alanis
La cpnclusión de la saga, que ata todos los cabos sueltos en una narrativa excepcional.
by Luciana
Ótimo produto
by Andy
An excellent read and conclusion to Philip Pullman’s ‘His Dark Materials’ series.
After the cliffhanger ending from the previous book, ‘The Amber Spyglass’ picks up the pieces with Mrs Coulter holed up in a cave ‘looking after’ a sedated Lyra, and Will, still smarting from the death of his father and the disappearance of Lyra, is now accompanied by a pair of angels in his search for her, and with the Subtle Knife still in his possession, Will must travel through other worlds in order to rescue Lyra before the Magisterium can get to her.
As Pullman’s trilogy has progressed, so the tone of the story has gotten that little bit darker with each subsequent book (Not least because we visit the land of the dead here, which also happened to be one of my favourite sequences in the book), but so much so, that ‘The Amber Spyglass’ feels so far removed and more sedate than the beginning of Lyra’s journey in the more action packed and faster paced ‘Northern Lights / The Golden Compass’. The pace here was a lot slower and as a result I felt the story was given more time to grow and flesh out the details more. As such, it felt like the story matured alongside Lyra as she became of age. The slower momentum of the story isn’t a complaint, far from it, but just an observation, as it certainly drew me more into narrative and into the characters of Will and Lyra.
We also meet some familiar faces that we’ve gotten to know over the course of the trilogy, which was very welcome, as well as some new ones too. Pullman gives his characters very human qualities, not completely black and white, good or bad, but somewhere in between that it sometimes twists your expectations of what to expect from certain characters, adding many layers of depth to his characterizations. Even with Will and Lyra, the ‘young and innocent’ protagonists, they have to do what it takes to fulfil their quest, even if it means lying, threaten and even kill!
There is also more of Pullman’s theological exploration, as Lord Asriel’s war on the Magisterium and The Authority gathers pace to its conclusion. Although I lean towards the atheist aspect, and agree with Lord Asriel’s point of view of enlightenment over blind obedience, he still comes across as a most unlikeable character, very cold and calculated, even towards his wife and daughter. Whereas my assumptions of Marisa Coulter were turned on it’s head completely and I had more empathy for her by the end. A mother doing what she must to protect her daughter.
And the ending is such a bittersweet one. After all that Lyra and Will have gone through, and with it being classed as a younger readers book, you might have at least expected some kind of happy ever after. Almost but not quite, as what we got was heartbreaking. I closed the book glassy eyed but still with a smile on my face, as two of my favourite book characters, Lyra Balacqua and Will Parry, came to the end of their quest on that park bench in Oxford’s Botanical Gardens.
All credit to Philip Pullman for a wonderfully written journey, with such memorable characters. And with his new ‘The Book Of Dust’ trilogy, we get to see Lyra and revisit this world again. I can’t wait.
by Filipa (A Savant Reader)
“The Amber Spyglass” is the last book of the “His Dark Materials” trilogy and, in my opinion, it is the best of them all. Unlike many bad reviews, I actually liked “The Golden Compass” movie that depicts the story of the first book in the trilogy and that was what incited me to read this series. After that, I cannot express fully how disappointed I was with the movie. This series is so much more than evil Mrs. Coulter trying to separate children from their daemons… These books criticise church and the way they spread their influence (probably because Pullman is an atheist), but they also teach the importance of friendship, of telling the truth and the need to be selfless. The relationship between Lyra and Will absolutely sweep me of my feet and the way they parted hurt me so much (nearly as if I was one of the characters) that I simply couldn’t stop crying; I’ve read the book one year ago and every time I think of that ending I still feel shivers and my eyes grow watery! However, I understand that there could be no other ending as Will and Lyra decided to put the wellbeing of the rest of mankind in front of their own wellbeing, something I find truly beautiful and a lesson worth learning.
“He meant the kingdom was over, the kingdom of heaven was all finished. We shouldn’t live as if it mattered more than this life in this world, because where we are is always the most important place.”
I believe this quote sums up what this trilogy is all about, that we should not live with our eyes set in heaven above, but in the people around us, in the world that we live in. I now understand why the movie failed: it was hollow, it lacked all these important moral lessons, they saw it as a children’s book, but “His Dark Materials” goes way beyond that. I absolutely recommend this series, especially to teenagers, as it is a fun read, with animals and magic (a true fantasy book), that still has a lot to teach and can help us find our role in this world.
by Leon Miller
What else can be said about a trilogy that has been universally acclaimed as one of the greatest imaginative works of our time? Only this: be sure to purchase the full cast audiobook and follow along in Kindle with it. The audio version is outstanding.