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Summary: great pageturner
Review: This book is not just for teens, but grownup with a sense for fantasy will love it too. It's a real page turner and hard to put down
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Summary: A step up from Harry Potter - well crafted and dark
Review: I picked up The Golden Compass thinking that it'd be a nice diversion until Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire came out - I was soon totally absorbed in Philip Pullman's excellent "His Dark Materials" trilogy and eager for more.The Golden Compass is the story of a young tomboy named Lyra, a child of absentee parents; her mother disappeared at an early age, and her father travels extensively doing research for Oxford University, in a world very similar to our own. But not quite - early on, you begin to see differences: every person has a personal daemon, an extension of their own soul and life, with which they can communicate and experience things. The bond between Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon, is the one thing that Lyra holds dear. All else is a street-urchin's life, lived in back alleys and rooftops, and mud fights. That is, until the day that her father returns home with mysterious results of some research he has been doing in the far North. Those results spur a secret attempt to kill Lyra's father, which Lyra uncovers. Thus begins Lyra's trip into a world that she thought she could avoid: the world of early adulthood. Unlike the Harry Potter books, where even the dark corners are lit (a little), Philip Pullman's books start out dark and get darker. Lyra's journey is hard, and met with challenges, fear, and failure. Pullman doesn't write down to you, and doesn't always give the reader the easy way out. It can be a tough read for the first fifty or so pages, but from then on it's all action and adventure, with a real cliffhanger ending that will have you running back to the bookstore for the also excellent, "The Subtle Knife." Instead of breathlessly waiting for the next Harry Potter book, you'll be reading Philip Pullman.
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Summary: Wow. I am thunderstruck.
Review: My 10 year old sister has been bugging me to read "The Golden Compass" for ages. I finally got around to reading it and I'm dumbstruck. This book belongs on a shelf with Tolkien's "The Lord of the Rings." It is at times amusing, thought-provoking, frightening, spell-binding, gripping, and fascinating. The ideas are unique and original. I especially like the panserbjorne, armored polar bear mercenaries who are anything but cute and cuddly. And the idea of daemons, animal manifestations of your soul, is captivating. I found myself wishing I had a daemon. Pullman manages to keep the story exciting, enthralling, rich with vivid prose and ideas. I have to say, this is the third best fantasy book I've read (and I've read quite a few). The top five are 1)"The Lord of the Rings" 2) "The Amber Spyglass" (the third book of the trilogy of which the Golden Compass is the first book) 3)"The Golden Compass" 4)"The Subtle Knife", the sequel to "The Golden Compass" and "The Hobbit"I highly recommend "The Golden Compass" to anyone who can read them and is ten and up (some of the ideas are too frightening and complex for anyone who is younger). The same goes for "The Subtle Knife." I wouldn't recommend "The Amber Spyglass" for anyone under 12, because the plot is more complicated than the first two books. Five stars.
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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.
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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!
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