Rating: 
Summary: VERY GOOD!
Review: This book was awesome! I'm only in sixth grade and it was like the best book I EVER read! And Your talkin to someone who has read all the harry potter books TWICE! Godd job Phillip!
Rating:
Summary: Majestic
Review: The Golden Compass is an exciting book. It is about a girl who goes on an adventure to save kids and her father in the north. The book starts out as Lyra goes into the retiring room of Jordan College. She saves her uncle who is really her father. After a couple of days she leaves Jordan College with the beautiful Mrs. Coulter. She then runs away with gyptians to find and save her father in the north. Along the way she meets a severed child, witches, and armored bears. The end completely blew me away by what happened.
Rating:
Summary: Imaginary Fantasy
Review: This is the first book of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy. This came highly recommended by a friend and I'm glad I followed his advice and read this book.This is the beginning of the story of Lyra Belacqua and her Daemon, Pantalaimon. It starts with Lyra being innocent of such words as "Dust" and "alethiometer" and "Gobblers" and "armored bears." In fact, not only is she innocent of her destiny but also of her past. Things go amuck after overhearing a conversation with her uncle, Lord Asriel as she is whisked away by a nice, beautiful lady named Mrs. Coulter. It turns out people and things are not as they appear as Lyra travels around the world having some of the most incredible adventures while learning about her past and her future. I really loved this book. While it ends with a big cliff-hanger, this book stands as a masterpiece on its own. This is highly recommended for anybody who enjoys a good fiction or fantasy.
Rating:
Summary: Stand alone greatness
Review: Despite it being the third part of a trilogy, The Golden Compass (or Northern Lights) is an amazing book on its own, and it will stand alone as one of the greatest books for scores to come!
Rating:
Summary: Imaginitive Worlds
Review: This book is the best book I have ever read! From cover to cover "The Golden Compass" is written in amazing detail and great ideas. With this story, Phillip Pullman brings fantasy into reality. This spectacular book makes your mind swim with the magnificent adventures of Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon.
This is a wonderful story. I highly recomend "The Golden Compass" to any advanced reader.
Rating: 
Summary: A great read!! A great set-up for an adventure!!
Review: The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials-Book I by Phillip Pullman, was a book presented to our class College English class reward for a semester of literature that would be considered far from ordinary. I thought that because it was supposed to be so different from our other assignments this year (Geometric Regional Novel, No Saints or Angels, Search for M) that it would be a typical coming of age story about a girl in early 19th century England. A mildly disengaging novel, nothing but your average vacation book. However as with the theme of our class, it turned out to be anything but ordinary.
The main character Lyra, quickly hooks the reader with her quirky, tomboyish charms and shenanigans. The tales of her escapades told through the narration of a child are deliciously vivid and convincing. The idea that all humans have a life long, external companion in the form of an animal is wonderful. The daemons allow for the reader to see the feeling of the characters more vividly than if these "soul creatures" were internal.
The changing of the daemon when the human is a child and it's stabilization as the human reaches adulthood is a precise metaphor for adolescence. The situation where the daemon takes an active role in the activity was a brilliant way for the author to verbalize the conflict of conscience and inner dialogue for the reader.
The conflict with the authorities, of which there are many in the novel, is easily relatable to our own reality. The conflict with the church is central to the novel and the Lyra's spirituality. Her confusion concerning her own identity and the insights given to the audience as to the girl's destiny creates an exciting suspense that will drive many readers, including myself to read on in this saga. The ending of the story is a cliff hanger, but all will be well as soon as I can get a hold of Pullmans next book The Subtle Knife: His Dark Materials -Book II .
Rating:
Summary: In a World All its Own
Review: Though at first glance The Golden Compass, the first of a trilogy, looks like a book made for younger audiences, Philip Pullman manages to interweave the separate worlds of childhood and adulthood in a breath-defying manner. Set in a world similar to the one we all know, but with drastic differences, the novel follows the journey of a young girl, Lyra, as she finds her way through adolescence, all the while trying to make new discoveries. There are twists and turns and jumps and leaps as she learns the story of her life and learns that things are not always what they seem. Usually marketed to young adult readers, the novel helps bring forth the idea of growing up and finding one's self. One of the elements of the novel that caught my eye was that everyone had what was known as a daemon, which is a physical appearance of a person's soul. The dae-mons are there as consciences; and for young readers, it allows them to begin learning about the psyche of themselves. We learn that daemons are capable of changing forms until the stage of adolescence is reached and as is seen with Lyra's own daemon, Pantalaimon, the forms change to match its owner's mood and thoughts. This helps young adults and even children learn that for a good portion of their lives, they will be a mixture of emotions and nothing is ever set in stone. Only when a person is finally old enough to realize what they were meant to do does life begin to settle, which can begin to happen at an adolescent phase. And that is just one example of the way in which Pullman uses symbolism to appeal to his audience. However, The Golden Compass also delves deeper for adults who pick up the book. The intricacies found in the book that deal with politics and the church and the way in which they are all connected in order to make people "happy" are ideas that often times, only adults will be able to understand completely. There is the sense of enjoyment while reading a novel that not only manages to remind us that we all still have a child living within us, but that can also teach us of the workings of the world through debates, discoveries, emotions, and world views. There are subtleties in even the ideas that seem miniscule at first; while the daemons can be seen as mere physical manifestations of the human soul, it can be further examined and the slight fact that daemons are almost always the opposite sex of its owner is something a bit more complex. The thought that daemons could possibly also be an extension of the soul in terms of one's soul mate is a proposal that only an adult would be able to comprehend, furthering along the simplicity of a child's mind while reading the novel. Although Pullman's trilogy is often compared to the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and J.K. Rowling, the only similarity I can see is the idea of a world that is similar to the one we know but with differences that cannot be overlooked. While all three novel collections use mythology and fantasy as a background, The Golden Compass manages to allow both children and adults to en-joy the words of the novel in diverse ways, depending on what type of perspective the reader has. Whereas J.K. Rowling's Harry Potter series is very clear-cut and to-the-point and J.R.R Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings collection is a deeper delving into the convolution of a mystic world, Pullman merges both those styles in a piece of work that is highly unmatched. Despite age, the genre the novel is placed in, and its target audience, Philip Pullman de-livers a work of fiction that will become a timeless piece in due time. The Golden Compass is a read that no one should miss because whether it is a child-like fairy tale or a mysterious, dark, and winding story that is being sought after, the book delivers just that. It is a riveting tale that once it has been started, the book will never leave your hands for the mere reason that, despite the cliché, it is too good to put down until it has been finished.
Rating:
Summary: Not just a book, but an experience!
Review: This is my first review of anything, ever, and I'm proud to write it about one of the most astounding fantasy books that I've ever read! The first thing that caught my attention about this book was the fact that it seemed so fresh. I avoided reading it for a long time, because I was afraid it would be a cheesy, run-of-the-mill fantasy. I couldn't have been further from the truth. To me, the most important thing about a fantasy book is it's ability to make the characters and world feel absolutely real, as if, perhaps, you were the one living in a fantasy world. Pullman's style plants you into his world as firmly as if you had been born in it. He doesn't fawn over his own creations, but gets down to the nitty-gritty, plunging right into the plot. You don't have time to worry about why humans have daemons, and how the heck bears can have armor. Ok, you do wonder, but it's written so beautifully, that you are swept away with it, allowing these mysteries to drift to the back of your mind, knowing that it will all be explained in good time. This, of course, only works if you are a patient person, like I am! Pullman's realism extends into character development as well. Emotions are placed openly on the table, available for you to gasp in fear along with the heroine as she is anticipating being separated from a cherished companion, or to holler with joy as she escapes another daunting situation. There are much more complex situations as well, leading to feelings of guilt and confusion. The reader will also feel angry or confused, and sometimes hate the author for what he is doing. I think that that is the most important part of the writer/reader relationship: the ability of the writer to transmit difficult emotions to the reader, without withhold anything, for fear of hurting his 'dear characters'. Of course, this brings up the question of the appropriateness of this book for children. This is the way that I look at it: children deal with difficult emotions and situations. Shielding them from those things will not help them grow up stronger. Letting them experience these through a book, which can then be discussed with thier parents, will help them gain mastery over their feelings, instead of being afraid of them. The heroine of the book, even with some shortcomings such as stubborness and 'roughness', is essentially a good, caring child, and a person willing to help the people she cares about, even if sacrificing her own safety. She can be a good role model. The second question of appropriateness is the heavy religious/spiritual influence on the story. This is more difficult for me to address. I would say that this is up to the parents of the child. If the parents themselves have some sort of religious preferences, and still want to allow thier child to read the book, they may want to discuss with him or her, how the book is just an example of one persons opinion, and also, since it is fiction, it would tend to stretch things out of proportion. If you feel that you have a strong case against the main themes of the book, then this would be the perfect opportunity to discuss with your child why you disagree with the author's ideas. Finally, I would like to wrap this up by saying that I am certainly lucky to have the chance to have read such a rich and complex tale, and would recommend it to anyone willing to leave our world, and get a taste of Phillip Pullman's complex universe!
Rating:
Summary: late to the party
Review: I'm coming late to this popular fantasy trilogy, of which THE GOLDEN COMPASS is the first part. The setting is a world very much like but not entirely our own. Lyra, a young girl raised in the halls of an Oxford college, is hurled into a massive effort by the Church to reverse original sin (called "Dust"). The plans involve kidnapping children and separating them from their daemons, the animal projections of their soul.
Both of Lyra's parents are involved in the effort to understand Dust, and indeed Lyra's father may have discovered a portal to another world. THE GOLDEN COMPASS is often marketed to young adults, but the concerns are really adult. At what moment do we "grow up", how do we change? What is it that separates adults from children? There's high adventure but also a philosophical journey, and I look forward to reading the second & third volumes. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Quality writing, but not for children
Review: I give Pullman 4 stars for the literary quality of this work and the fantastic imagination that produced it. But this product is not appropriately marketed; the story is often sadistically gory and suffused with a spirit of rank bitterness that is highly inappropriate for its stated tween target audience. I'm no prude - I love the Lemony Snicket books and I'm a big fan of Edward Gorey and Tim Burton. But there's nothing fun or ironic about the violence and grisliness of this book. One section of the book, for instance, talks about ripping out a person's lungs and replacing them with a manual pump so the person lives in constant fatigue and agony. Parents who care about the moral lessons their children learn from their books should also take note that the main child hero is a rebellious tart who encourages getting drunk, and the main adult hero is a violent, wrathful man prone to beating children. (Anger seems to be listed among his virtues.) I've heard that this series later nosedives into anti-Christian propaganda, and while that theme is muted in the first book, there is clearly a worldview based on animism and occult spirituality. Given the overall grisly and serious tone of the book, I take that vision seriously, unlike similar criticisms some have leveled at the Harry Potter books. In short, this is quality writing that seems to stem from a philosophically and emotionally troubled mind. Its proper appeal is for adults who like dark-themed literature. For that audience, I give it 4 stars. But this book is absolutely not for children. There is absolutely no benefit to putting this type of material into developing minds.
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