The Golden Compass in Ultimate Popsugar Reading Challenge

Jun 26, 2014 Krissy rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: audiobook, tagged-classics, cover-color-blue, pgs-300-399, book2film, tagged-steampunk

**2015 Reading Challenge W/Josh: #50 A Book You Started But Never Finished**

Not nearly as good as I was expecting. On the bright side, the narration of the audiobook was fantastic!

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Aug 20, 2009 Brandi rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: teen, audiobooks

This well-known fantasy series by Phillip Pullman starts with the book The Golden Compass. In this book Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon eavesdrops on a secret meeting with her uncle and various scholars from the university that she calls home. Lyra learns about the controversy surrounding dust and the experiments being carried out in the north. Shortly after the secret meeting, children from the area start going missing, including Lyra's friend Roger. Lyra takes it upon herself to find the miss ...more

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Oct 08, 2009 Lisa rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: don-t-recommend

This is one of the few books that I have ever given up on. I became bored by it and with the knowlege of where the story leads I took decided that I would not force it upon myself. If my children ever want to read it then I will have to finish it otherwise I have too many better books waiting.

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Feb 03, 2008 Rachel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-fantasy, read-pre-2010, 100bestfantasy

Top classic, very inventive

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Jan 12, 2008 Willa rated it it was ok · review of another edition

After scanning several reviews and hearing this book praised as the strongest of the series, I'm not terribly excited about what's to come. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad. It just wasn't all that great, either.

The prose had a tendency to feel stilted and forced as if Pullman knew the story he wanted to tell and the point he wanted to get across but he just couldn't find the right words for it. The character development was disappointing too. For the most part, they seemed to be all over the After scanning several reviews and hearing this book praised as the strongest of the series, I'm not terribly excited about what's to come. Don't get me wrong, it wasn't bad. It just wasn't all that great, either.

The prose had a tendency to feel stilted and forced as if Pullman knew the story he wanted to tell and the point he wanted to get across but he just couldn't find the right words for it. The character development was disappointing too. For the most part, they seemed to be all over the place, and either the motivations for their actions were unclear or they acted in ways contrary to the personality that had previously been revealed.

And the biggest irritation for me was the dialogue. It's a matter of personal taste, I freely admit, but I tend to be irritated by too much brogue or slang in dialogue. A little is okay to make clear the character's speaking style, but over-doing it just bogs my reading down and gets on my nerves. Pullman didn't over-do it, but he did combine a little use of slang with alternate/slang words (ain't became en't, for example) and that just made it harder to read. Like I said, though, that's just personal taste. However, the dialogue seemed to jump around a lot, too, and not really make anything clear. I kept having the feeling that Pullman was assuming his characters knew more of what was going on than they should have been able to, simply because he knew what was going on and he was controlling them, which oftentimes left me in the dark and feeling like there was something I missed.

The story (plot-wise) itself, though, was enjoyable. Pullman is obviously very creative and imaginative, just not a great storyteller, in my opinion. The best part of the book was the interaction of the humans and their daemons. That was the 'truest' part of the book and very emotionally engaging. Although (**SPOILER ALERT**) I would have liked to hear more about what motivated some of the adult characters to not only sever the link between unwilling children and their daemons, but to be willing to sever their own link, since it is obviously such a painful and traumatic experience. I hope that we'll hear more about that in the following books. ...more

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