Rating: 
Summary: Absolutely EXCELLENT!!!!!!!!!!
Review: There are no words which can express the excellence of this book. It is absolutly capturing from page one to the end of the book, and once you've got that far you have to read the whole trilogy. The Golden Compass is about a girl named lyra, who lives in a different world. Her seemingly simple life at the start all takes a sharp turn towards her destiny after a small turn of events. She finds her self on a long journey in which she is not only searching for her past but her future and the future of the whole entire universe. She meets some great characters along the way, which you can't help but love. The way the book is written, it keeps you dying to find out what will happen next. Adventure, intrigue and betrayalline every page, as well as love, loyalty and friendship. It is absolutly impossible to get started and not finish. There aren't enough stars to give this book!!!!
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Summary: THE REVIEW
Review: This book was amazing and always kept you hanging. Pullman has really outdone hisself this time. I give this book 5 stars and call it the greatest book I ever read.
Rating: 
Summary: Were any good ideas saved for other books?
Review: Lots of great ideas in this book--armored bears, people tethered to shape-changing daemons where their souls reside, a "truth meter" reminiscent of the Scientologists' e-meter, Dust(reminiscent of Dune's "spice" concept), a quasi-Catholic religious hierarchy at odds with the intellectual community, and some pseudo-physics thrown in for good measure.Unfortunately, though, it seems like a soup of ideas that never blend into a coherent whole (cf Lord of the Rings which meshes lots of neat and novel concepts together, even in the first book). I don't expect all questions to be answered in the first book in a series; but this felt more like a stew where the author threw in lots of tasty items but forgot to cook. I also generally didn't find the writing style to be as lyrical and compelling as Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, for example. And it's odd that Lyra, a tough street kid, periodically keeps referring to people as "my dear." Sounds positively grandmotherly. All in all, I was disappointed after the rave reviews.
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Summary: This was a good book.
Review: I thought the story and characters were interesting from the start. The Artic scenes and story were especially cool n' vivid. And some of the situations were very dark and disturbing. Iorek Byrnison and the panserbjorne are very cool. A good change of pace while patiently waiting for George RR Martin's 'A Dance with Dragons' in Fall '02.
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Summary: The Golden Compass
Review: The Golden Compass, by Phillip Pullman, is the first stunning fantasy of the "His Dark Materials" series. The series is my favorite series and the books are my three favorite books. You should read the books in order: first The Golden Compass, then The Subtle Knife, and finally The Amber Spyglass.This story takes place all over Lyra's World, including the college she lives in. In Lyra's World, there are things called daemons (day-mins). If you lived in her world, you would have one, too. They are part of your soul and they are animals that can take different shapes. When you get older, you must to choose one shape to have your daemon become permanently. Lyra lives in this particular world, where strange things are going on. Children are disappearing. No one knows why, but there are strange rumors about a group called the GOBBLERS who supposedly eat the children they kidnap. Lyra wants to find out what their real purpose is, so she daringly goes searching for the GOBBLERS. When Lyra is kidnapped by one, she finds out what their real purpose is. And it has nothing to with eating children. Will Lyra escape from the GOBBLERS? Or will she never see her friends in the college again? Your questions will all be answered in The Golden Compass. I really liked this book because the author uses so many descriptive words. You can really understand what the author is trying to tell you in his writing. The author has a way of keeping you guessing. Some of the book is kind of difficult to understand because of its great complexity, so I would recommend this book for ages 10 & up. It is my favorite book in the world so far and I give it five out of five stars. If you don't already have this book, you should go out get this book at a bookstore or a library! You won't be sorry.
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Summary: Not Just for YA!
Review: Just wanted to say that I came across this book somewhat on accident and decided to read it through anyway, 4 days later I noticed I was finishing up the second in the series! I decided to ask the person who suggested it to me where she found it. "Oh in my little brothers room" she replied. I was amazed that this book is a young adults book. I am a college student at UCLA, and a journalism/english major at that. I found many refrences to mortality, theology, and maturity that were brilliantly placed among one of the most exciting stories I have ever read. I suggest this book to adults that have perhaps found themselves here and are saying to themselves "Its a kids book!?". Read it, enjoy it, disect it, and then pick up The Subtle Knife and do the same.
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Summary: Great Book!!!
Review: Philip Pullman can write very well. This is a book that takes you into a different world than we are living in today. The people in this book are strange, but intreaging. The idea of Pullman is not good but great!
Rating:
Summary: Golden!
Review: Phillip Pullman had truly created a fantasy worth the read! You'll travel to a world where armored bears guard mighty palaces and witches dot the night sky. Enter the world of Lyra and her deamon, Pan. In a world not quite unlike our own, Lyra is given a golden alethiometer - an intrument that answers any question you have - by the master of Jorden college. It all started in the retiring room of Jorden. As Lyra watches hidden, she learned of the microscpopic Dust. What is it? How does it effect humans? Soon the alethiometer leads Lyra to an adventure of a lifetime - to the cold artic regions. Bolvanger, Svalbard, the Artic, and Jordan College awaits in this wonderful tale of fantastic fantasy... So get up off the swivel chair and head for a world where the impossible becomes a reality!
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Summary: Extremely Excellent
Review: It seems like only yesterday that I picked this book off the shelves of my local bookstore and already I have become captivated in the series. This book, "The Golden Compass" is one of my most favorite books of all time, its interesting and entrancing storyline pull the reader through its many twists and turns of the story. Perhaps, my only disappointment was that it was too short. The story starts with the mischievous Lyra, a girl who is more of a tomcat than the polite little lady people expect her to be. Her adventures eventually lead her into a plot of proportions beyond her imagination. An assassination attempt, strange mystical substances, severed heads, and disappearing children are all examples of what she finds in her little escapades, and guess what? That's only the beginning of the book! As her escapades unfold, one after another, she meets strange new people, witches, and beings unlike anything you've ever thought of. This is a story almost to good to tell you about, for fear that everything will be ruined, but it is nonetheless to good to not talk about. In the mystical world of Lyra's, each human being has a daemon, an animal which represents his or her soul, in a way. The human reacts to it as a sort of playmate and friend which bond is so great that the daemon feels and acts out the emotion of its human counterpart. In this book, an evil force, nicknamed the "Gobblers", collects children and uses them on experiments relating to separating the bond between daemon and human. Lyra, intent on getting her childhood playmate, Roger back from the "Gobblers" goes through thick and thin and meets many characters through out the book. Her actions eventually get her associated with a giant, and lethal armored bear who becomes her companion and eventually, her friend. Throughout the story, she consults with a "golden compass" or an alethiometer, or a truth teller. The author, Philip Pullman crafts his story very excellently, incorporating many characters into Lyra's story. His choice use of descriptive words and vocabulary make the reader imagine the scene in their mind, and with great detail also. He creates environments with painstaking detail and has the characters interacting within the whole story. This book is the first and possibly best of the three book trilogy from Philip Pullman. Another great quality of it is that you can read it over and over again and it won't lose that great story, you will always be enraptured in the story, never wanting to put it down. I recommend this book immensely, not only because of the great story but also by the way it is presented. Again I repeat, this has been one of my favorite books of all time , and will continue to be. You will not be disappointed by it, and would be a great buy for all ages. This is why I give it five stars, for Philip Pullman's superb work in presenting the story in such a great way.
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Summary: I Apologize
Review: Please excuse my previous four-star review, I went and read the last two in the trilogy, and they really tie up the concepts started in this book. Go and read them all!
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