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Summary: The Golden Compass
Review: At first, the book looked boring, but my friend bugged me and finally I borrowed her copy. I could hardly put it down. I idmediately fell in love with the book. I am now searching for the second one. Awesome!
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Summary: Action and Adventure Rules in this Book
Review: This is definetely the best book I've ever looked at. It has som many things happening in it, but yet, it's still not confusing. Once I started reading I could'nt stop. Pullman shows high vocabulary, descriptive, and exciting-to-read text). I love books that combine action and adventure. This book starts out in a world where people have daemons (animals that can change appearance in childhood, but will settle later on-they are like visible souls). A girl named Lyra starts out as living in Jordan College with a master, after her "divorced" parents had left her there secretely. Just before she leaves to go away with a lady called Mrs. Coulter, she receives the alethiometer (golden compass-which can be read to tell the truth. Only when Lyra finds out that children mysteriously disappearing, including her best friend Roger, she has to rescue them. Finally, she realized, with the help of the Gyptians, Armored Bears, witches, and other friends, she finds out what was really happening. (Don't you wonder who this Coulter lady could really have been???)
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Summary: The race to the Golden Compass
Review: Hey you! Ya you! When was the last time you read a fantasy story? How long? Wow, a year that's a long time. Well if you like fantasies, made you would like this. (That is, if you like to be confused ). The title is The Golden Compass. The main character is name Lyra. She lives in another dimension. The place she lives has other creatures and strange things. Also her best friend is a diamond. The author is Philip Pullman. This trilogy novel. The first book he wrote. There is a second book called the Sacred Sword (I think that is the title), also the third book is called the Amber Spy Glass. I Think am a confusing book because it jumps around. (See it just goes around that is confusing)? The book is about a girl trying to get The Golden Compass. They run into a lot of problems. I should not tell you those problems. You'll have to read it to figure it out.
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Summary: Awesome!
Review: This book is wonderful! It's abot Lyra Belacqua, a girl who lives in Oxford, but a different Oxford than the one we know. Everyone in her world has a deamon. Deamons are like peoples spirits. Lyra's is Pantalaimon, Pan for short. She leaves Jordan Collage where she lives to live with Mrs. Coulter. Before she leaves she gets an alethiometer a compass-like instrument that tells what will happen if you ask a question. She eventullay runs away from Mrs. Coulter and journeys with the gyptians. She goes to the North to catch the Gobblers, people who snatch children and seperate them from their deamon. While shes there she meets Iorek Byrnison, an armored bear. He helps her find Lord Asriel, he father. She plans to help him by giving him the alethiometer. I would like to tell you more, but it'd give the story away!
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Summary: Hurrah!
Review: This is, hands down, my favorate book of all time. It has been since I read it. I recomeded it to all of my friends and I reccomend it to everyone. This book is a must read!
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Summary: Not for religious people
Review: Lyra lives a happy life at Jordan college, having mud wars with her friends and rival colleges, running on the roof tops, and playing with her demon. Demon? every person in her world has one, it can change shapes until you reach puberty, then it fixes its form on your personality. She was happy until the Gobblers came to town. No one knows who or what they are, but they take children. When Lyra's best friend gets taken away she starts on a journy to find him. I would not suggest this book to religous people, as God and Angels are explained scientificaly. For anyone else it is a must read. If you read this book you have to read the other 2 books in the trilogy.
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Summary: Not for religious people
Review: Lyra lives a happy life at Jordan collage, having mud wars with he friends and rival collages, running on the roof tops, and playing with her demon. Demon? every person in her world has one, it can change shapes until you reach puberty, then it fixes its form one your personality. She was happy until the Gobblers came to town. No one knows who or what they are, but they take children. When Lyra's best friend gets taken away she startes on a journy to find him. I would not suggest this book to religiuos people, as God and Angles are explained scientificly. For anyone else it is a must read. If you read this book you have to read the other 2 books in the trilogy.
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Summary: I recommend it without a second thought!
Review: I am reviewing this book after I've read all 3 of His Dark Materials trilogy so I can assure you that I've got the whole picture.I can not judge this book alone, separately from the other two.The sure thing is that if you like the 1st you will love the rest.The story flows easily and pleasantly, after 20 pages or so, you feel that Lyra (the main character of the book)is your best friend.Breathtaking adventures lead you to the end of the book rapidly and my advise is to buy the second volume before finishing the Golden Compass.
At first, eventhough I enjoyed the book very much, I thought that the most suitable readers would be children, but as the plot develops I realized that Philip Pullman deals with the most important values in our life: Love,God,to know ourselves,our need to do something worthwhile in our short lives and leave our stamp after we die.
You can enjoy the book without searching profound meanings but if you do, they are there.I strongly recommend the Golden Compass, as well as the other two.I am sure you won't regret it!
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Summary: Anti-Christian yes, Sophomoric No
Review: I can write, without a doubt, that _His Dark Materials_ is the most audacious, sophisticated, and provocative children's fantasy series--with the possible exception of the _Earthsea Trilogy--ever written. THe message of _His Dark Materials_ is, indeed, opposed to Christianity and all otherworldly religions. It is, as Pulmman has made clear, the anti-C.S. Lewis of the genre. I would urge people who have not read the series to stop reading this review now, and to be careful about reading other reviews recently posted here. Much of the power of the books come from the expansion of Pullman's universe as the series progresses: if you know all of what's going on, it spoils the stunningness of Pullman's project. An earlier reviewer characterizes Pullman's vision as a simplistic "pantheism," a message of the finality of death that he or she finds unappealing. I think that is a misreading of what Pullman is doing; Pullman's message has more in common with the existentialism of Sartre or Camus than with panthesitic throught. True, "dust" is conscious, but that is a conceit of a fantasy universe. Pullman's real message is that life needs to be lived here, and knolwedge of this fact is precisely what makes life meaningful. _The Farthest Shore_ makes a similar point, as do many other fantasy novels, but one cannot confront the sweep of Pullman's program without a feeling of awe. It is a call, in his words, for a "Republic of Heaven" liberated from the tyranny of sacraficing oneself for the sake of a hypothesized eternal reword. In this respect, it is not so much "anti-Christian" as secularized Christianity, but I will not pursue that here. The genius of the books, besides the lyrical quality of the prose, in which they are written, is twofold. First, Pullman weaves together theology, philosophy, physics, and history into a thoroughly persuasive cosmology. This is a book rich in its allusions to literature and history without being pretensious about it. In consequence, there are many, many layers through which one can enjoy the book. For example, You don't _need_ to know about Luther's doctrine of the "Two Kingdoms" to appreciate an early conversation at Oxford--but if you do, it will surely make you smile to learn that it renders a belief in multiple universes heretical in Lyra's world. The second is Pullman's ability to maintain a strong moral focus, yet have a cast of characters who are often deeply flawed even if they fight on the side of right, and deeply principled even if they fight on the side of wrong. Both the forces of good and evil are capable of tremendous selfishness or self-sacrafice. This is a lesson that, unfortunately, is highly salient to our present age.
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Summary: Ann's Review
Review: At first I wasn't interested in reading this book at all. My friend had been nagging me to for about a year. I'm ashamed to say that i finnaly picked it up because I was home sick and there was nothing else to do. At once I was hooked. The book took life in my mind it was like a movie. The characters were made so clearly i could feel what they felt. The plot thought at times hard to understand is so genius i was amazed. It really made me question things but i never would say it was bad. In fact, it, and the entire series are the best books i've ever read. Thank you Lin, for making me read it.
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