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The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1)

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1)

List Price: $37.00
Your Price: $25.16
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 5 stars
Summary: way better than Harry Potter, but more scary too
Review: This book is much too frightening for anyone before their middle teens, so don't go giving it to the Harry Potter crowd. It's a great read, though. I am not into science fiction fantasy or Tolkein, but I couldn't put it down and read into the wee hours (a mistake -- I got scared witless in the dark house!).

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: 1st-class fantasy
Review: Although the plot lacks in depth in some areas, this book has exciting parts, such as the armored bear fight. The book also is promisingly intruiging with such things as the mystical "Dust" and the Church. However, these references are left in insufficient detail which I hope will be explained in the two sequels.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: The first a fantastic trilogy.
Review: I have read this book twice now and it just keeps getting better! Some amazing images with the north and the snow, I was surprised to find that Svalbard actually exists! I dont know why they changed the name from Northern Lights to The Golden Compass in a America though? strange.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: I loved it
Review: I seirously debated giving this one 5 stars. Some may say that it has a slow start, but I have to diasgree. The start is probably the best part (the first time through) because it leaves you in suspense, it makes you turn the pages faster and faster until you learn what you are looking for. This book is so imaginative too, it's one of the only books I've read that has a strong, female lead character. I also loved the concept of daemons, that they are essentially your personailty type in an animal that is bonded to you (ex. a person who was a leader and strong in spirit would have a powerful animal as a daemon-like a lepoard). Dust was also a very intirguing concept. The ending is somewhat unsatisfying simply because it sets the stage for the sequal and leaves many loose ends (the end of the 2nd book does this too but all questions you may have are eventaully answered). The series is great, and this is the best one in it. Very highly recommended.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: It was great!
Review: This book is one of the greatist works there ever was. The only problem is that the second sequel is...okay, and the third one suuuucks. but this one is great. The only problem is that you need the sequels to make the story complete.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: One of the best books ever written...
Review: Ok, so one day I was at the book store looking through the fantasy section. I just happened to see The Golden Compass. It looked interesting, so I bought it and brought it home. I began reading it at about 6pm. I had finished it the next day at about 7 pm. I never left the couch. It is by far one of the best books I have ever read. Philip Pullman is a very gifted author with a very complex imagination. I recommend this book for anyone.

Lyra has lived in Jordan College her whole life, unsupervised, free to tear around the streets whenever she wanted. But one day, she sneaks into the Retiring Room and her entire life changes. Before she knows what is happening, her best friend Roger is kidnapped and she is living with Mrs. Coulter, a nice woman who promises to take her north. From there, Lyra is hurtled into a race against time to save hundreds of children from an unspeakable fate. Included in this book are armored bears, demon flies, and a bunch of other cool stuff. READ IT!

Rating: 1 stars
Summary: Simply did not like
Review: This is a book that I read all the way through hoping that eventually it would get better. The writing is so poor that it was almost painful to read. Pullman, an adult male, has a very poor grasp on Lyra, his girl heroine. The Daemon concept is never fully articulated, and if I hadn't read the jacket I would have never understood it. In my mind, this is the quality of a first draft that needs a major overhaul. Great concept, dismal follow through.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Very slow start, but gets very interesting
Review: I admit it. I only got this book because it was getting such high acclaim. And actually, it was the only thing that kept me going- but I'm glad I did.

The story in this book is a very original and interesting one. Once "Dust" is discribed (even though it's a bit rushed), it does come across as a very thought-provocing idea. The children getting kidnapped may have been done before, but it is done for a very creative reason (don't wanna spoil it for anybody ^_-). The "daemons" (basically an animal manifestation of a person's soul) idea was great and I loved Iorek (though I thought he could've been fleshed out a little more). Yes, there is some criticism in the book about the Catholic Church, but I certainly wasn't offended by it. I didn't see the "church-bashing" that others did, just some criticism thrown around. (I haven't read the other books yet so I can't comment on them. (EDIT: After reading the second book, it *is* there. My opinion of this book hasn't changed, but I would *not* recommend reading the next ones.)) I don't see this as a children's book though because of 1) the length, and 2) the amount of detail and depth may go over little kid's heads. It is definatly a good book for older kids/YA, though it may be a bit too drawn-out for some.

The problem I had with this book though was that, for a good 75-100 pages, I really had absolutly no clue what the point of the book was! People would ask me what the book was about, and I would have problems telling them anything besides, "it's about a girl and an animal that follows her everywhere." We see almost everything through the main character's eyes, which is unfortunate because she doesn't know quite alot! We are given hints in the first chapter as to what the whole book is about, but it spends too much time on things that really aren't that important. Then every 5 chapters or so, we get a brief conversation (where the main character isn't present) between two people who do know where the author's leading, but talk about it very vaguely(sp?). I wanted to see why everyone said it was such a good book so, thankfully, I kept reading.

If the author got to the point a chapter or two quicker, it would have been a much better book. However, it is worth the time as is.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: a quintessence of Dust
Review: For much of the time while I was reading this book, I almost felt like two people. The 27 year-old fan of postmodernism recognized a lot of the standard devices and somewhat facile symbolism of fantasy novels, found some of the characterizations occasionally to border on cliche, and even thought the authorial voice was uneven in parts. At the same time, reading "The Golden Compass" took me back to how I felt when I was 9 or 10, reading Lloyd Alexander and Tolkien and Phillip Jose Farmer and Julian May for the first time, almost physically unable to put the book down. There were moments I found myself almost overcome at the powerful emotions and primal forces Pullman lets loose within the story -- though there were others when I wondered if he was really doing all that much more than dozens of other novels I'd read centering on "quest" plots.

But the last twenty pages or so lift "The Golden Compass" well above the level of most so-called "young adult fiction" -- though, like the Harry Potter books to which Pullman's trilogy is often compared, the level of plotting, characterization and prose is much, much closer to Tolkien than to the drippy, forgettable books they had in middle school study hall. In the novel's conclusion, Pullman binds the strands of spirituality, anti-authoritarianism, and moral courage interwoven throughout into a powerful finale that is both episodically satisfying and guaranteed to leave the reader eager for more.

And while I doubt this was his primary intent, the substantive conclusions drawn as to the nature (and representatives) of good and evil are not without relevance to our own morally ambiguous times. In a world of rote sanctimony and morality by after-school special, Pullman's powerful judgments are as bracing and refreshing as they are challenging.

As other reviewers have commented, Pullman never condescends to either his reader or his characters. Lyra, his heroine, undoubtedly is an extraordinary child, but she is a child through and through. Her sensations of wonder, rage, dread and joy are conducted in full force by the crisp prose, and offer a full range of delight to the reader.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Slow starter, but an outstanding finish
Review: The first half of this book didn't impress me much. Standard bit about the orphan kid raised in a castle-like setting suddenly getting whisked off on an adventure. Sure, the demon bit was different and there was more pseudo-science than your typical fantasy novel, but otherwise the same. About halfway through, though, Pullman really turns the book around. The whole story of the bears and the armor was incredibly cool. The escape scene towards the end was very thrilling. Then the shocking twist at the end totally grabbed me. I will definitely have to get the next book. The Golden Compass may start rather sedately, but the ending is more than makes up for it.


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