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The Golden Compass

(His Dark Materials #1)

Philip Pullman (Goodreads Author)

3.99 · Rating details · 1,318,179 ratings · 22,922 reviews

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.

Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and ...more

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Hardcover, 399 pages

Published April 16th 1996 by Alfred A. Knopf Books for Young Readers (first published July 1995)

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Nov 01, 2014 Sean Barrs rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, sci-fi, contemporary-lit, children-of-all-ages, 5-star-reads

This novel is an absolute work of pure genius, and is in my top ten reads of all time. Before I go into the depths of character and plot, let me start by saying this book is up there with other fantasy hard hitters: by this I mean books like The Lord of the Rings and The Chronicles of Narnia: the books that define the genre. This is high praise indeed, and this novel is worthy of it.

The protagonist of the book is Lyra, a young girl, who is parentless and seemingly friendless. She has grown up i ...more

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Aug 01, 2013 Jayson rated it really liked it

Shelves: genre-juvenile-fantasy, read-in-2009, genre-anthropomorphic, subject-parallel-universe, author-british, 300-399-pp, genre-young-adult, read-in-2007, genre-steampunk

(B+) 78% | Good
Notes: A solid story and well written, but very much a children's tale with one child going on a quest to save other children. ...more

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Oct 19, 2015 Sean Gibson rated it liked it

Recommended to Sean by: Kristin

I don’t love the Beatles.

*Ducks as he is castigated by the seething masses*

I also don’t love green vegetables, punches to the face, or going to the dentist, though I don’t think those revelatory disclosures will elicit much in the way of rage-fueled attempts to slit my throat with the jagged edge of a broken CD (compact disc, kiddos—look it up).

So, why risk a severed jugular on the day before I’m going to stuff myself so full of turkey that I’ll have a snood coming out of my ear? Well, because ...more

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Feb 21, 2018 Hailey (Hailey in Bookland) rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: owned, fantasy

2.5*
I never read this as a kid and maybe I would have enjoyed it more if I had, but it was just okay for me!

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Dec 13, 2007 Bright rated it really liked it

Recommends it for: everyone

Shelves: digested

the golden compass trilogy seems like a natural progression in christian literature. yes, it is christian literature, the same way the chronicles of narnia are. aslan is only a lion when the reader is about 10 or so in the united states. after a point, he unrepentantly becomes jesus. and the four children are like, the gospels or something. and the story is somewhat ruined then, because as an adult, you can't just shoehorn jesus into a lion outfit without snickering a little.

pullman however, has the golden compass trilogy seems like a natural progression in christian literature. yes, it is christian literature, the same way the chronicles of narnia are. aslan is only a lion when the reader is about 10 or so in the united states. after a point, he unrepentantly becomes jesus. and the four children are like, the gospels or something. and the story is somewhat ruined then, because as an adult, you can't just shoehorn jesus into a lion outfit without snickering a little.

pullman however, has solved this problem. i can't continue without utterly spoiling the story for everyone who hasn't read it, so consider yourselves warned...

he made jesus into a little girl. even better, he made jesus into a little girl who doesn't even know she's jesus. now how's that for a new twist on the new testament? the part that's particularly brilliant about it, is that it actually worked. lyra is never really anything like christ... she just follows the path of his narrative. first, she has the absent father. lord asrael is desperately involved in his own ideas, so though he's not actually in heaven, he may as well be.

wait a sec, isn't this just dogma again? sort of, except dogma is really more relevant to catholicism in particular, rather than scriptures. and instead of linda fiorentino who is kind of a mopey christ, we get a 10 year old girl. 10 year old girls are the best focal point for any story. i've been one for years.

and this is a perfect choice, because she really never takes time to mope. she doesn't miss her faith or wrestle with it... she doesn't believe at all. and therein lies the genius of pullman's work, that has all the christians in a snit; she's also the antichrist.

why would he do that?

because the bible does. if you really take a look at the word antichrist, it does not mean "evil". khristos, from which christ is derived, means "anointed". so what does antichrist really mean? unanointed, or that which is against the anointed. there's a bunch of baggage on top of that meaning, which is how we got those omen movies, but at the heart of it, it just means smeared with fat. actually, it means recognized by the divine... but in ancient times, we did that by smearing the recognized thing with the fat of a sacrificed animal or person. and that, is why we celebrate the crucifixion. it was the point of christ's birth. as if it wasn't obvious enough, it's why he's referred to as the lamb.

wow. so this is heavy... pullman has gone all the way back to the origins of the judeo-christian faith and said, this important guy, was just the carrier of this magical stuff that we're obsessed with, that we don't even use anymore. it's like we're infected or poisoned by this idea. we need an antidote. we need an antichrist, to show us how far we've wandered from the truth, which had nothing to do with trooping along after some guy.

and this explains why christians are so antagonized by the books. they've been following the beast for years without recognizing it. the golden compass referred to in the book, is the bible we've all forgotten how to read. and in its stead, we've rallied around the church which claims to help us understand the symbols. but in reality, it is the beast referred to. the one which rose from rome, with many heads that change over time. so what really, is the golden compass about? it's about how to be human again. how to regain an understanding of the world, that doesn't rely on our fragile expectations for good and evil. all it requires, is that you give up everything, in order to discover what is important again. and i don't know how christians could have missed that primary message. ...more

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Oct 08, 2018 ~Poppy~ rated it really liked it

“You cannot change what you are, only what you do.”

“So Lyra and her daemon turned away from the world they were born in, and looked toward the sun, and walked into the sky.”

...more

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Jun 12, 2012 jessica rated it really liked it · review of another edition

i first read this when i was like 10 or 11 and i remember really liking it. i recently came across an online thread about this book/series and the message(s) the author was intending to convey, and i was taken aback. i honestly really didnt remember anything except for talking bears that wear armour. lol.

after the reread, i am suprised that i read this as a child. this is definitely a ‘childrens book’ that is not meant for children, in my opinion. the deeper meanings are pretty subtle but, rega ...more

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Jul 09, 2012 James rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-fic-young-adult, 3-multi-book-series, 1-fiction, 2-fic-fantasy-and-scifi

I enjoyed the premise and theme of the book. Pullman created well thought out and memorable characters. It was a little too technical for me in regard to the depths of fantasy, i.e. I had to go back and look up the meaning of some of the made up words in the book to stay focused on what was actually happening. But great imagery. I'm not sure if I will read book 2 or 3 of the series yet... thoughts? ...more

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Jun 19, 2012 Jessica ❁ ➳ Silverbow ➳ ❁ added it

Shelves: for-nuggets, meh, check-and-recheck, banned-books

9/8/17:

1. I cleared my rating. If that doesn't sufficiently refute the claim that I "just wanted" to give THE GOLDEN COMPASS 1.0 star, then you're irrational, and further discussion is pointless.

2. I am a BOOK REVIEW BLOGGER. That's what I do. If you want to make cracks about being a trophy wife, go right ahead, but to insinuate that I would "skim" a book to have the minimum knowledge required to give the appearance of having read it so that I can give it a bad review b/c reasons, is an attack ...more

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Jul 05, 2019 Leonard Gaya rated it really liked it

Before quantum mechanics and Schrödinger’s cat’s paradox, alternate universes were inherently accessible post-mortem, either Heaven or Hell: that whole “other side” business had a strong moral and religious bias, obviously. However, contemporary science fiction has introduced new possibilities of experimenting with alternate realities, e.g. travelling through time (Wells’ Time Machine) or through space (Stapledon’s Star Maker). More interestingly, it introduced the possibility of parallel worlds ...more

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Jan 18, 2018 Caz (littlebookowl) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook

Rating: 3.5 stars

Listened to this on audio, which was a lot of fun!

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May 13, 2010 notgettingenough rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: childrens

Later....A friend said to me today that if you read this book properly, it should make you a better person. I'd just earlier in the day been thinking pretty much the same thing. When I asked S. in what way was he made better, he said he couldn't say, just that it had. Exactly. I think you have a sense as you read this book that Lyra's goodness has rubbed off on you, she's made you better in an entirely non-specific way.

M. then said that she didn't think a book, to be special, necessarily had to ...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Dave Schaafsma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy, children

March 2020: Looking at this again as we begin to see the tv series of His Dark Materials, which looks very good. I really liked the 2007 movie with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, wish that it had continued, heard the Catholic Church denouncing Pullman was part of it, dunno. We are continuing to read in this house the second trilogy.

9/25/2020:
This is a second reading of Pullman's classic, accomplished on vacation in a car, with the family, by listening to the 9 cd audio collection, with Phillip March 2020: Looking at this again as we begin to see the tv series of His Dark Materials, which looks very good. I really liked the 2007 movie with Nicole Kidman and Daniel Craig, wish that it had continued, heard the Catholic Church denouncing Pullman was part of it, dunno. We are continuing to read in this house the second trilogy.

9/25/2020:
This is a second reading of Pullman's classic, accomplished on vacation in a car, with the family, by listening to the 9 cd audio collection, with Phillip Pullman Himself reading the narration and beautifully, with a cast of fine actors taking various parts. The first of a trilogy entitled His Dark Materials, which is a great fantasy story supposedly appropriate for grade 6 (American schools) but is really all ages, and like Wrinkle in Time, has dimensions in it which you will discover at any age. It IS a kid's book, in so many ways, with a strong girl main character, Lyra, 11, who is set on freeing her friend and other children from the north, with the help of Gyptions, an armored polar bear, witches, a Texan aeronaut balloonist, among others. This first volume is wonderful fun, focused as it is on Lyra and adventure. Lyra is a pretty unforgettable young girl character, who really grows over the trilogy, and though others also come to take the stage, in this book she is up there front and center.

The series is also a commentary on and critique of C. S. Lewis's The Lion, Witch and the Wardrobe series, which Pullman, an atheist, found as he finds all Christian theology, too simplistic about the nature of the universe. Pullman once commented that he finds it interesting that he is placed in the category of "fantasy" writer, which he thinks is dismissive and evidence of the narrowness of vision that dominates the planet: fact and fantasy. In other words, Pullman sees the world as multiple, not binary, not just good and evil, Heaven and Hell; he thinks there are multiple worlds, and he thinks science/physics increasingly supports what many people know about the presence of multiple spiritual realms.

Pullman is also widely castigated/denounced as critical of The Holy Roman Catholic Church, which seems to be true in my reading of this book, though I think he is critical of almost all religions that see the world narrowly and are bound up in a view of the world as comprised of Sinners and Saints. Pullman especially finds the notion of Original Sin, which is the very foundation of the Dutch Calvinist Reformed Church in which I grew up, reprehensible, certainly limiting as a foundation for life. I think the Catholic Church, seeing Pullman as an atheist and his work as an exclusively anticlerical tract, may have helped to crush the continuation of the fine film series, which only has one third of the story, focused on this book, produced, though that film was tame compared to the book. But I think the series is more about the nature of True Religion than anti-religion, and Pullman says as much himself.

The series also owes a lot to Milton's Paradise Lost, which will become more evident as the series goes along, though you don't need to have read that work to appreciate the tales. Pullman loves Milton, and also argues with him, too. As with Warner Brothers cartoons, there's a kid level and an adult level on which you can appreciate the wonder of the tales. But it's not just a fantasy adventure! As with all great literature, it's about what is at stake in making meaning. It's a great classic.

But enough about all that theology jazz! Lyra is the hero of this first volume (and ultimately of the whole series). She is a liar (Pullman pronounces her name Lie-rah), a storyteller, fantasist, without which she could literally not survive. We named our daughter after this main character, so you know I am a fan, though we pronounce the name Lee-rah (as in Lyrical). ...more

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Oct 29, 2012 Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it

Shelves: fiction, fantasy, 20th-century, childrens-young-readers

Northern Lights = The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1), Philip Pullman
Northern Lights (known as The Golden Compass in North America and some other countries) is the first book of "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Set in a parallel universe, it features the journey of Lyra Belacqua to the Arctic in search of her missing friend, Roger Parslow, and her imprisoned uncle, Lord Asriel, who has been conducting experiments with a mysterious substance known as "Dust". Northern Lights is a young-adult Northern Lights = The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1), Philip Pullman
Northern Lights (known as The Golden Compass in North America and some other countries) is the first book of "His Dark Materials" trilogy. Set in a parallel universe, it features the journey of Lyra Belacqua to the Arctic in search of her missing friend, Roger Parslow, and her imprisoned uncle, Lord Asriel, who has been conducting experiments with a mysterious substance known as "Dust". Northern Lights is a young-adult fantasy novel by Philip Pullman, published in 1995. A children’s tale with one child (Lyra) going on a quest to save other children.

تاریخ نخستین خوانش: روز دوم آگوست سال 2008 میلادی

عنوان: نیروی اهریمنی اش - کتاب اول - سپیده ی شمالی در دو جلد؛ نویسنده: فلیپ پولمن؛ مترجم: فرزاد فرید؛ تهران، کتاب پنجره، 1384 تا 1385، در پنج جلد؛ شابک دوره پنج جلدی: 9647822146؛ چاپ سوم 1387؛ شابک دوره: 9789647822145؛ چاپ چهارم 1388؛ موضوع: داستانهای کودکان و نوجوانان از نویسندگان انگلیسی - سده 20 م

عنوان ک‍ت‍اب‌ نخست از مجموعه ی : «نیروی اهریمنیش» شامل دو جلد ب‍خ‍ش‌ اول‌ و دوم: س‍پ‍ی‍ده‌ ی‌ ش‍م‍ال‍ی‌؛ عنوان (جلد سوم) ک‍ت‍اب‌ دوم‌: خ‍ن‍ج‍ر ظری‍ف‌؛ و عنوان (دو جلد چهارم و پنجم) کتاب سوم: دورب‍ی‍ن‌ ک‍ه‍رب‍ای‍ی‌ است. نیروی اهریمنی‌ اش؛ عنوان مجموعه ای سه‌ گانه از داستانهای تخیلی ست، که: «فیلیپ پولمن» آنها را نگاشته است. کتاب‌ها به ترتیب: «سپیده شمالی (1995 میلادی، در آمریکای شمالی، با عنوان: قطب نمای طلایی؛ منتشر شده)»، «خنجر ظریف (1997 میلادی)» و «دوربین کهربایی (2000 میلادی)» نام دارند. داستان کتاب در مورد دو نوجوان به نام‌های: «لایرا بلاکوا»، و «ویل پری» است؛ که در دو دنیای موازی زندگی می‌کنند، و وارد ماجراهایی حماسی می‌شوند. کتاب سوم از مجموعهٔ «نیروی اهریمنی‌ اش» در سال 2001 میلادی برنده ی جایزه کتاب سال «وایت برید» در «انگلستان» شد، که یک جایزه ی معتبر ادبی به شمار می‌رود. روزنامه ی «آبزرور» از این مجموعه به عنوان یکصد رمان پرفروش دنیا یاد می‌کند. در کتاب نخست: «لایرا» به کمک دوستش که توسّط «شفن»ها دزدیده شده رفته، تا او را نجات دهد. ولی در انتها درمییابد که...؛ ا. شربیانی ...more

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Jul 14, 2007 Oceana2602 rated it did not like it

Recommends it for: no one

Shelves: english, male-writers, 2006

This book was recommended to me somewhere in fandom as a children's book that is also interesting to adults. I admit that I wasn't particularly impressed with it, and I can't see it as something that I would give my kids to read. My main complaint is the "means to an end" style the author uses. A bit like in a computer game, our main character Lyra runs from one wise man to another in her quest to find some missing children. This is practical, because except for one scene in the beginning, she d This book was recommended to me somewhere in fandom as a children's book that is also interesting to adults. I admit that I wasn't particularly impressed with it, and I can't see it as something that I would give my kids to read. My main complaint is the "means to an end" style the author uses. A bit like in a computer game, our main character Lyra runs from one wise man to another in her quest to find some missing children. This is practical, because except for one scene in the beginning, she doesn't have to find out things herself, since the wise men will always tell her wat to do and what is going on in long, question-answer dialogues which will reveal the next part of the plot. Nothing is ever really set up to lead somewhere, unlike for example in Harry Potter where everything leads to something in the end, everything is happening in dialogue, which sounded so constructed and goal-oriented that it rarely ever convinced me.

The narrator is probably supposed to be an all-knowing narrator (sorry, don't know the english term for that), but he slips into Lyra's POV with no pattern I could discover. And the fact that I even noticed this shows how disturbing it was.

The protagonist is, well, I don't know why anyone writing children's book would invent an "unimaginative" (quote), lying, sometimes even hateful character like Lyra. I started to like her a bit more during the second half of the book, but mostly because I felt sorry for her. Then I discovered that she is supposed to be older than 11, when she makes herself younger by telling someone that she is eleven. Until the I had thought she was maybe 8 or 9. Shortly after that I stopped reading the book.

P.S.: After having read numerous other reviews of this book, I feel the need to point out that I'm an atheist and that no, I didn't give this book a bad review because it "offended my christianity". In fact, I seem to be so much an atheist that I completely missed how the book could be controversial or offensive in that regard. I know it offended me by being a bad book sold with a lot of hype, but that's not Pullman's fault. However, I did read that Pullman called himself an agnostic somewhere, and that explains rather a lot to me. ...more

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Sep 16, 2009 Wendy Darling rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites-all-time, uk, fantasy, favorite-ya, snowy, made-my-heart-hurt, tmg-classic-readalongs, heroines-butt-kicking, young-adult, gorgeous-prose

Hello friends! We're reading THE GOLDEN COMPASS together throughout the next few weeks as part of our goal to read more classic YA/MG books this year.

Please join us if you can!

-- Discussion on blog: February 28th
-- Hashtag #tmgreadalong if you'd like to discuss as you read on Twitter.

More details on the blog: http://www.themidnightgarden.net/2014...

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

My review:

Wildly imaginative and thrilling, this complex and be ...more

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Oct 15, 2007 mark monday rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy-modern, inbetweenworld

fantastic. pullman introduces readers to his sophisticated world view slowly, and this first novel in the trilogy has an ideal narrative focal point in the mean little liar who is the protagonist. i have never seen lying in children portrayed so explicitly as a positive thing, and after this novel, i'm all for it! the settings are wonderfully strange and surreal yet rooted in an eventually understandable reality, and the supporting characters are oblique and enigmatic without being tiresome. the ...more

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Apr 05, 2012 Emma rated it it was amazing

Shelves: childrns, re-read, fantasy

When a film was made of this book, they did the book a real disservice. This book is amazing. Lyra is the feisty protagonist, an inveterate liar, clever, passionate and loyal. She achieves the impossible, rescues an armoured bear, befriends the witches, and rescues children from a fate worse than death- literally. Pullman does a great job realising this alternate world where everyone has a daemon- like the other half of your soul - and these creatures stay with you through your life. As adults t ...more

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Jan 01, 2020 Sara rated it liked it · review of another edition

In this case is the new tv show his dark materials on hbo better then the book and would 100% recommend the show than the book but still the show did follow the book so it is a good book and lyra is a great child with realy bad parents and I love iorek , the best bear character in the book and show and would love to see more of lord asriel and ms. Coulter because they are realy intresting, and the ending is realy good , 3⭐⭐⭐

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Oct 21, 2009 unknown rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: series, seen-on-film, 30-day-book-challenge, ya, familiars

I really liked this book! I think it is easily among the best of the crop of Potter-era YA lit (even though it actually came out first!).

The movie was just ok. I thought the lead kid did a good job playing Lyra, and Nicole Kidman made a very menacing Ann Coulter. But my very favorites were Daniel Craig as the zealot Lord Asriel and Eva Green as badass witch Serafina Pekkala.

Serafina Pekkala is one of my favorite witches in literature: she's grounded in her connection to the earth, she's beautif ...more

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Jan 29, 2019 Charlotte May rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: middle-grade, epic-fantasy

Read when I was younger (about 8 years ago I reckon) didn't really think much of it and only made it half way through book 2. Reckon I would like to try it again if that day ever arrives....... ...more

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Jan 01, 2014 Jesse (JesseTheReader) rated it it was ok

I struggled with this one. I felt the story was very slow and I understand that it's the first in a trilogy and the author had to do some world building, but even so I felt there were details that were left unexplained, details that needed explaining.

I'm having a problem understanding why this is considered a children's book. I can't imagine a child fully understanding all the political banter that takes place in the first section of the book. Also there are things like Daemons that aren't full ...more

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Sep 14, 2007 Julia rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2007, aal, knopf, middlegrade

I really like that the Iorek Byronison, the bear, is always referred to by full name. When I'm Bear King, I definitely want to be on a full-name-all-the-time basis. Then I will battle challengers to mortal combat, tearing through armor, swiping off heads with my massive paws, slicing open chests and devouring hearts. And as I gorge myself on bear blood, I will cry out "Bears! Who is your King?" And my name will roar from a thousand bear throats.
it's going to be awesome.
(My name has got that sam ...more

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Apr 01, 2013 Darth J rated it liked it

Shelves: series

I never added a review of this but I'm going to now. I'll admit that this one was a bit slow for me at parts (especially compared to the sequels) but what kept me reading was the fascination with the daemons. I liken them to the patronuses (patronii?) from the Harry Potter series in that they are the animal totem of a character, and can change until someone is "set in their ways". How many other people have held conversations about what their daemon or patronus animal is, and then changed it fre ...more

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Mar 12, 2019 Lucy Langford rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

4.5****

”You cannot change what you are, only what you do.”

So begins the story of a fantastic invention of a parallel world to the one we live in and the adventures of a brave-hearted young girl.

Lyra is bound to stay in Oxford to learn and play with her friends, however, when talk of Gobblers arise with children disappearing, and with her close friend Roger being one of those children, Lyra, along with her daemon, Pantalaimon, set out and are determined to find his whereabouts.
Their quest leads ...more

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Mar 26, 2013 Bradley rated it really liked it

Shelves: fantasy, ya

Re-read, 11/4/19:

I think I might have been a bit unfair to the book in my original review. Or maybe I was a bit disgruntled with YA literature in general at the time. Or maybe I was getting tired of the whole chosen one with the miraculous oracle bit driving the plot forward.

But let's back up a bit here. In the particulars, I liked running around like an urchin. I did like all the Daemons. I liked growing up among all the academics. I liked running around and being a very English nuisance and g Re-read, 11/4/19:

I think I might have been a bit unfair to the book in my original review. Or maybe I was a bit disgruntled with YA literature in general at the time. Or maybe I was getting tired of the whole chosen one with the miraculous oracle bit driving the plot forward.

But let's back up a bit here. In the particulars, I liked running around like an urchin. I did like all the Daemons. I liked growing up among all the academics. I liked running around and being a very English nuisance and getting involved very civilly with evil folks and right proper decent parliamentary folk.

And what could be better than to top it all off with a trip to the north where all the Scandinavians are! Um, I mean bears. And witches. And evil research facilities that OUGHT to have been where Santa's elves made some non-dusty toys.

Yeah, it was pretty entertaining. Very quick-paced. Somewhat annoyingly light on the character-building so everyone seems like pieces on a big game board with a big narrator pushing them around by a rather cool compass... but okay for all that.

I guess I tended to remember this book in a slightly lesser light than it really deserves, considering how many YA novels are like it these days.

Original review:

After reading the first nine-tenths of the novel, I was expecting nothing other than a YA adventure novel. When I finished it, I saw the interesting bits finally come alive. The writing is smooth and the characters, while rather one-sided and painted with broad strokes, works well here. I can't complain, because most book's characters rather fall into the same category and so I must focus on ideas and how those ideas are pulled off. The locales are charming, and even though we're missing some depth, it's to be expected by the type of the novel it is. I did find myself wanting the viewpoints of the parents more than our lovely silver-tongued liar, but I think this is just my own frantic desire for understanding a character's psychology. Good book, and I'm looking forward to more adventure. ...more

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Dec 11, 2019 Ceecee rated it it was amazing

The BOOK is called Northern Lights and the FILM is The Golden Compass and it ain’t even a compass 😂

I should have read this book years ago so thank you BBC for the current production of His Dark Materials which is gripping us on Sunday nights, for finally prompting me to pick up this book. It’s a buddy read with the husband (faints with shock, so thank you Aunty Beeb for encouraging him to read something other than The Times from cover to cover, I swear he even reads hatches, matches and dispatch The BOOK is called Northern Lights and the FILM is The Golden Compass and it ain’t even a compass 😂

I should have read this book years ago so thank you BBC for the current production of His Dark Materials which is gripping us on Sunday nights, for finally prompting me to pick up this book. It’s a buddy read with the husband (faints with shock, so thank you Aunty Beeb for encouraging him to read something other than The Times from cover to cover, I swear he even reads hatches, matches and dispatches, or BBC news feeds on his iPad) and we both really enjoyed it and it was fun discussing the characters and events.

Lyra Belacqua is living at Jordan College, Oxford. She’s a wild child, very clever but a’little savage’. She learns about The Gobblers who are taking children and when her close friend Roger disappears, Lyra and her dæmon Pantalaimon are determined to find out what’s going on. Before she leaves Oxford The Master of Jordan College gives her the Althiometer, the golden ‘compass’ of the movie title, which she learns to use with tremendous effect. What unfolds sees Lyra going on a journey to the far north where she encounters the most amazing things such as armoured bears,witches, Tartars with dæmon wolves, cliff-ghasts and another world which is revealed through the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights and the whole story hinges around mysterious Dust.

It is a truly fantastic story of not only self discovery where Lyra learns that she is capable of so much, that people are not what they seem so I guess she loses some of her childlike innocence. Lyra might be a wild savage but she is extremely clever. I love the idea of the dæmons. As a child your dæmon constantly changes but becomes fixed at puberty and is a representation of you and the bond is so strong that survival of one is dependent on the survival of the other. We debated what we would like as dæmons - I’d like a swift but since they’re mostly on the wing that’s not very practical so I’ll have a snow leopard please. Knowing my luck I’d end up with a hyena or perhaps I’m more suited to a sloth.

Overall, it’s a truly magical, mystical, and totally enthralling. It’s about morality, spirituality, good versus evil and the saving of innocents from the corruption of adults. I suppose the target audience is teens but it works equally well as an adult book. Hopefully get to The Subtle Knife, book 2 soon! ...more

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Dec 19, 2007 Rebecca rated it liked it

Recommends it for: fantasy fans

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. This book started off strong, but by the end of the story, I felt that Pullman had sacrificed logic and direction for drama and suspense. He did a good job of gradually making Lyra less of an ignorant brat and more of a noble little savage girl. Overall, I liked this book well enough to want to read the second one in the trilogy, but I had several problems with it:

-There was no comic relief or even any funny moments in this book. It took itself extremely seriously and was rarely light-hearted or This book started off strong, but by the end of the story, I felt that Pullman had sacrificed logic and direction for drama and suspense. He did a good job of gradually making Lyra less of an ignorant brat and more of a noble little savage girl. Overall, I liked this book well enough to want to read the second one in the trilogy, but I had several problems with it:

-There was no comic relief or even any funny moments in this book. It took itself extremely seriously and was rarely light-hearted or playful. It bothers me when epic stories get a little bit too in love with a sense of their own epicness.

-Roger is supposedly the protagonist's best friend and her motivation for doing everything she does in at least half of the book, and his death is supposed to be some significant turning point...yet he's by far the dullest, least developed, and least important character in the book. He says maybe 20 sentences in the entire novel and his longest continuous presence in the book is when he's asleep in a balloon. Time for Lyra to get a better, more interesting, best friend, which I assume happens in book 2.

-The alethiometer is pretty damn hokey. It sounds like something Neville's grandmother would have given him in the HP series. It doesn't tell the truth so much as do the dirty work of plot exposition for Pullman. "What's so-and-so doing?" And then we get several paragraphs of background information and future predictions. Um, isn't that the kind of information that characters are supposed to figure out by being smart or making friends or discovering things on their own? On the other hand, if the alethiometer is indeed something marvelous and great, then why didn't Lyra use it all the time? There were a couple of times when she was wondering about something or needed a crucial bit of information, but she either chose not to consult the alethiometer or forgot about it. I'm sure that was intentional on Pullman's part, because it was a way for him to show Lyra messing up or figuring something out on her own. But if I had an alethiometer at my disposal, I'd be using it all the time, and there was no good reason why Lyra shouldn't have done that, too.

-Lord Asriel's great "betrayal" was completely obvious to anyone paying attention and wouldn't have been very surprising even if you weren't expecting it. The fact is, he never came across as a "good guy" to me from the very beginning, if for no other reason than that he was a bastard to Lyra from the very first chapter. He obviously didn't give a flip about his daughter, so why shouldn't he betray her to get what he needed to satiate his ambition? Lyra was stupid to ever trust him in the first place. I'm hoping she acquires a little bit deeper faculty of character judgment in the next book.

Despite my criticisms, it was an enjoyable book overall, and it's quite refreshing to read a children's fantasy story that still upholds virtues like bravery and sacrifice without resorting to the ideals and symbolism of Christianity. Pullman's writing is what really sold this book to me. The plot itself is nothing special and falls into the cliches/archetypes that most fantasy falls into, but Pullman is obviously more expert at the writer's craft than most children's authors, or even most fantasy authors, for that matter.

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Mar 25, 2008 Brad rated it really liked it

Recommended to Brad by: China Mieville

Shelves: fantasy

After all the talk about Pullman's supposed anti-Catholicism or anti-Christianity or atheism or whatever one wants to label it, I approached The Golden Compass (known originally as Northern Lights) with an open mind and found something other than what I'd been told to expect.

I found elements that questioned Christianity and Catholicism and the nature of God and its works, but I also found elements that questioned parental authority, the ethical and practical roles of Science, and the nature of ...more

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Aug 28, 2014 NReads rated it it was ok

I do not remember much of this book, nor why I gave it 2 stars

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About Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman

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In 1946, acclaimed author Philip Pullman was born in Norwich, England, into a Protestant family. Although his beloved grandfather was an Anglican priest, Pullman became an atheist in his teenage years. He graduated from Exeter College in Oxford with a degree in English, and spent 23 years as a teacher while working on publishing 13 books and numerous short stories. Pullman has received many awards In 1946, acclaimed author Philip Pullman was born in Norwich, England, into a Protestant family. Although his beloved grandfather was an Anglican priest, Pullman became an atheist in his teenage years. He graduated from Exeter College in Oxford with a degree in English, and spent 23 years as a teacher while working on publishing 13 books and numerous short stories. Pullman has received many awards for his literature, including the prestigious Carnegie Medal for exceptional children's literature in 1996, and the Carnegie of Carnegies in 2006. He is most famous for his His Dark Materials trilogy, a series of young adult fantasy novels which feature free-thought themes. The novels cast organized religion as the series' villain. Pullman told The New York Times in 2000: "When you look at what C.S. Lewis is saying, his message is so anti-life, so cruel, so unjust. The view that the Narnia books have for the material world is one of almost undisguised contempt. At one point, the old professor says, 'It's all in Plato'—meaning that the physical world we see around us is the crude, shabby, imperfect, second-rate copy of something much better. I want to emphasize the simple physical truth of things, the absolute primacy of the material life, rather than the spiritual or the afterlife." He argues for a "republic of heaven" here on Earth.

In 2007, the first novel of the His Dark Materials trilogy was adopted into the motion picture The Golden Compass by New Line Cinema. Many churches and Christian organizations, including the Catholic League, called for a boycott of the film due to the books' atheist themes. While the film was successful in Europe and moderately received in the United States, the other two books in the trilogy were not be adapted into film, possibly due to pressure from the Catholic Church. When questioned about the anti-church views in His Dark Materials, Pullman explains in an interview for Third Way (UK): “It comes from history. It comes from the record of the Inquisition, persecuting heretics and torturing Jews and all that sort of stuff; and it comes from the other side, too, from the Protestants burning the Catholics. It comes from the insensate pursuit of innocent and crazy old women, and from the Puritans in America burning and hanging the witches—and it comes not only from the Christian church but also from the Taliban. Every single religion that has a monotheistic god ends up by persecuting other people and killing them because they don't accept him. Wherever you look in history, you find that. It's still going on" (Feb. 2002). Pullman has received many threats by ardent believers over his choice of subject matter.

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Other books in the series

His Dark Materials (3 books)

Books by Philip Pullman

The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)

The Amber Spyglass (His Dark Materials, #3)

His Dark Materials (His Dark Materials #1-3)

The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust #2)

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Quotes from The Golden Compass

“You cannot change what you are, only what you do.” — 1282 likes

“That's the duty of the old,' said the Librarian, 'to be anxious on the behalf of the young. And the duty of the young is to scorn the anxiety of the old.'

They sat for a while longer, and then parted, for it was late, and they were old and anxious.” — 418 likes

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