World of the Golden Compass: The Otherworldly Ride Continues [Paperback]

by Scott Westerfeld (Editor), Maureen Johnson (Contributor), Diana Peterfreund

The World of the Golden Compass explores the most fascinating aspects of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, from the ultimate attraction of the power couple to secret lives of angels, and how to find your own daemon.

Genres: Nonfiction, Short Stories, Reference, Anthologies

210 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Scott Westerfeld is a New York Times bestselling author of YA. He is best known for the Uglies and Leviathan series. His current series, IMPOSTORS, returns to the world of Uglies.

The next book in that series, MIRROR'S EDGE, comes out April 6, 2021.

Reviews

[Marlena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Almost every aspect of the His Dark Materials is analyzed in this book, from all different points of view. I learned so much more about Pullman, CS Lewis, JRR Tolkein, the history of the series, the science behind Dust, the different versions of daemons, etc, etc, etc! The authors are some of my favorites, and the essays are the perfect blend of funny and factual. In fact, I may like this book better than the actual series.

[Patrick · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the first and last essay I will ever read. I feel a bit bad for giving it only one star since I'm not a vivid reader of these things, but that doesn't change the fact that it was totally boring, slow to read and made me feel like a psychiatrist was over-analyzing non-existing issues.

[meeners · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting range of essays on HDM, whether it's topic or tone or other things that start with t. (testosterone? thermodynamics? tetchiness?) i would have liked more essays that aren't just justifications, guilty or not, of the author's own personal reactions, but then again it's always illuminating to compare one's own reading experiences to others.

the essays i liked least were the ones that strained too much to link HDM to Other Hot Topics. interesting comparisons can be made, sure, but does the "X element in this book = Y element in that book" equation really say anything useful, in the end? more valuable, i think, would be an exploration of what the act of comparison does to our understanding of these books, and why such comparisons are possible. (the essays by ned vizzini and james a. owen are a good example of this exploration, for example; the essays by juliet marillier and o.r. melling are maybe not so much.)

my favorites: cinda williams chima, maureen johnson, diana peterfreund, ned vizzini, james a. owen, elizabeth e. wein, kathleen jeffrie johnson.

[Audrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm torn between 2 and 3 stars on this. It really appeals to the part of me that LOVED my literary criticism classes in college. There's a pretty wide variety of topics addressed here, although some of them really had to stretch to make plausible connections between Pullman's trilogy and their topic of choice. Although just about every single one of the authors is a fan of Pullman's work, they didn't hesitate to criticize him for what they saw as faults in his work, nor did they refrain from addressing many of the issues that raised such a furor when the movie version was released. Those articles are perhaps the ones I enjoyed most. Overall, though, this collection lacked any real depth in terms of an overall examination of Pullman's work.

[Ryan Mac · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not sure what I expect to get out of these literary criticism books but I'm just not getting it. This series of essays dissects various aspects of Phillip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Some of the essays were very interesting and others were totally lame. The essays were primarily written by young adult and fantasy writers.

[A · Rating 4 out of 5]

My first intro to lit crit babey!!

[Anne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very interesting read. I think it was overhyped though

[Mari · Rating 4 out of 5]

The adventure begins here.

[Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like learning about what other people got out of a story, and this collection of essays on the "His Dark Materials" novels had a lot of interesting ideas.

[Nathalie · Rating 3 out of 5]

Honestly, I got quite bored of essays by the end of this, and I didn't agree with all the opinions of these essayists, but it was good fun for a while :P

[Erin O'Riordan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not a single bad essay among the lot.