Rating: 
Summary: Excellent
Review: One day, a few years back i was really bored and wanted to read something new and fresh. i heard about Philip Pullman and decided to give him a try. I'm glad i chose this book, the Golden Compass, for i was very impressed with the writing, the story, the creativity, and the world he imagined. it is a well written book that keeps you wanting to read further to see what happens to Lyra, our young heroine. it is written for youngsters but adults can enjoy it as well, especially with the questioning of Christianity as the trilogy unfolds.
Rating:
Summary: This book rocks
Review: I have not yet finished this book but so far it is really cool
I just made it to the part where they found the severed child
and it is starting to get really interesting . Well I cant exactly have one but i would really want a Alethiometre cause
I would keep practicing on it to get it down pact. Well time to ffinish my book now .
Rating:
Summary: Life Changing
Review: i read this book when i was in 3rd grade, and since then, it has been my all-time favorite. i have read all the books in the His Dark Materials series, and this is by far the best. the story is fascinating, the characters believable, it just pulls you into its rhapsody of eloquence.
Rating:
Summary: THE BEST BOOK EVER!!!!!!!
Review: This book is the best I've EVER read. If you read it, you will definately want to finish the series. The book has so many cliff-hangers that you will never want to stop reading it. The ending even makes you want to move on to the next book (The Subtle Knife) as though it is just another chapter! I can assure you that you will enjoy this book about Lyra and her magical life. You'll probably want a daeman and the many other cool things that Lyra has. It'll take you a little while to get into the book, but you will love it after the first 30 or so pages. Don't give up after a few pages. The rest of the series is just as good. The three books in the series are The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spy Glass. Buy the His Dark Materials books today!
Rating: 
Summary: not for children only...
Review: The Golden Compass (..known as Northern Lights here in the UK) is a curious, and successful story combining elements of fantasy, morality, and adventure told in a relatively easy-to-read style. While targetted to early teens it is a complex, deep story which should have appeal to most adults.Like the Harry Potter series, this is a fantasy story with a European setting. In The Golden Compass people have daemons (little animal creatures) attached to them (physically, emotionally, and spiritually). It is this bonding between daemons and humans, together with a mysterious portal to another world (universe) way up north in Svalbard (..north of Norway), that drives this story. At the center is a young teenage girl who bravely yet unwillingly saves the day. Philip Pullman spins a neat story (mostly) devoid of contrived elements. My only real complaint is that it too obviously leaves an unfinished ending, as an encouragement to read the next book in the series. And yes, I will undoubtedly finish the series. Bottom line: a nicely crafted fantasy story. A cynic might call it a thinking person's Harry Potter.
Rating:
Summary: Bewildering!
Review: This is an amazing story. It starts out slow, and one almost wants to put it down and read something a bit more simple. Don't. everything in this book is great. The characters are fully developed, the descriptions of the places and events are so vivid, you can almost see the scenes play out on the page. THE GOLDEN COMPASS tells the story of Lyra, a young girl living ina world like ours, but very, very different, For one thing, everyone has a daemon, which is like a physical place for your soul, they always take the form of animals, but you can read the book and find out more. Anyway, Lyra ends up going on a quest to find Dust, and rescue he "uncle" Asriel. If you want an interesting but long read, here is what you are seeking.
Rating:
Summary: The First is the best!
Review: The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman is a wonderful, edge-of your seat fantasy/adventure story set in a world parallel to our own. The hero of the book, Lyra Belacqua, and her daemon, Pan, orphaned residents of Oxford College, find themselves in the middle of a plot by the College and by the Church to discover the nature of Dust. A plot which means the death of many children, maybe even Lyra's! Ostensibly a young adult fantasy novel, some of the issues and philosophies brought up in the book were more geared towards adults who have perhaps had World Philosophy 101 or Comparative Religion 101 in college. Written in Chapter Book format, The Golden Compass uses the third person narration technique, while also giving us first-person views into Lyra's thoughts. The Golden Compass is set in a world parallel to our own, at Jordan College, where science, theology and magic and taught as one. Lyra Belaqua, orphan and ward of the Scholars of Oxford, and her daemon (in this world daemons are the physical manifestation of a person's soul. They can change their forms (usually animals) to reflect the mood or disposition of their "mate". They are not to be mistaken for demons, servants of evil.), Pantalaimon, are well-known among the people of oxford who regard her not only as a joy but as a major trouble-maker. Lyra becomes involved in a plot to uncover the nature of Dust (a supposedly evil substance that hovers near children and their daemons) when she runs afoul of The Gobblers - people who kidnap children and only children - who have taken her best friend, Roger. Things become worse when she is kidnapped by Mrs. Coulter, a woman who claims to be Lyra's mother. Mrs. Coulter is a member of the Oblation Board - more famously known as The Gobblers - which has been kidnapping children and performing experiments on them, specifically severing the bond that exists between a human and its daemon. When the bond is severed the daemon disappears and the child dies soon afterwards. Mrs. Coulter and her group believe they are saving children by making them "immune" to Dust, and thereby killing them. Working against the Board is Lyra's uncle, Lord Asriel, a Scholar of Jordan and explorer. He believes he can find the source of Dust and make its power his own. While Lord Asriel is against Mrs. Coulter and the Board, he is not altogether on Lyra's side, either. Eventually, he traces the source of the Dust and uses its power to declare war on Heaven, opening a gateway to another dimension and stepping through it. This is the first book in a trilogy (the sequels being The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass), and it derives its name from an artifact of power given to Lyra - an alethiometer, which can detect the truth of any situation. Lyra uses this "golden compass" to aid her friends - the witch queen Serafina Pekkala; Lee Scoresby, a Texan aeronaut; and Iorek Byrnison, a brave bear and king of his people - on her quest to save her uncle from Mrs. Coulter and find out what Dust really is. The Golden Compass is not what many would consider an "instant children's classic" due to the heavy amounts of theology and mysticism presented therein. Many people may pick it up thinking they are getting a Harry Potter offshoot, but instead wind up with The Divine Comedy. It is abnormally dense for a young adult book, much denser than any of Philip Pullman's other books, and yet it contains themes that would be universally accessible - Trust, Adventure, Independence, Good vs. Evil., etc. I found this to be totally fascinating and couldn't wait to find out if there really were worlds hidden behind the curtain of the Northern Lights, and if Dust was good or evil or just Natural. The problem, however, is that most teenagers are not equipped, I believe, to read and understand such dense riddles as The Nature of Life, The Universe and Everything, which is put forward in this book. Contrariwise, there are some very powerful, non-cerebral, emotional moments in which the characters are not just "talking heads" but are "flesh and blood", fully developed people. This is the strength of Philip Pullman's writing - to have powerful characters that the audience can relate to and like and be engaged by. Lyra is, of course, the most powerful of these characters, as she drives the entire plot along by her actions. She is a passionate girl who has deep seated feeling of compassion and anger and conscience and mischief. Do not expect her to be a "good little girl" who goes blithely to her destiny. Lyra confronts her fate as only a warrior could. Among the many other human characters Pullman created in this world, there are a host of non-humans who are no less engaging than their mortal counterparts, and indeed are more interesting at times. We meet Sarafina Pekkala - the witch queen, who knows of Lyra's destiny and who proudly and bravely fights by her side; Iorek Bjornsen, deposed King of the Bears whose soul rests in his armor; and Pantalaimon, Lyra's Daemon, her soul and best friend in the world. The Golden Compass is supposedly geared towards young adults, but the issues and theories dealt with in its pages are not (to my mind) easily understood by young adults. I have no doubt that the story and characters are intriguing, but the major conflicts that develops in the book - that of Lord Asriel declaring war on Heaven, Dust being Fallen Angels - may be to much like Paradise Lost for most teens to understand. The Devil may be in the details, but it's the Philosophy "there is no good or evil but what saying makes it so" wherein many characters "fall". The depth of The Golden Compass sets it apart from Harry Potter or even Buffy. In conclusion, I would enthusiastically recommend this book to anyone who is interested in pseudo-mystical, religious, fantasy thrillers. The plot is well developed, the characters are engaging, and even though it reads a bit "older" than Young Adult The Golden Compass is nevertheless fascinating. I enjoyed every page. My best friend would get a copy for their birthday.
Rating:
Summary: my piece of mind
Review: The book,The Golden Compass was an imazingly beutiful book. Philip Pullman has conjured a magical story with strong bonds between humans and animals. Pullman is a wonderful story teller that grabs your attention from the very first page.
I really enjoyed this book because of the way the magic is twisted into a mystery that slowly unfolds to startling revolations. The world pullman shows you involves gypsies, witches, humans, and most of all the bond between deamons. If you are a reader that enjoys a book with mysteries, good characters, magic, exciting fast moving plot that will catch you off guard this book will be good for you. I strongly recomend this book to anyone who wants to escape. This book ends in a way where you will want to jump right into the sequal which just as promising as the fist. So, if your looking for a book that will keep your attention and have you always wanting to read the next page this book is for you.
Rating:
Summary: A fulfilling and challanging book
Review: I was given Philip Pullman's first 'His Dark Materials' book in 1996, when it was introduced in America. Being the little idiot that I am, I read the last three or four pages and decided I wouldn't bother with the book, as it appeared to have a fairly painful ending, and I was more partial to frilly, happy, everybody-wins stories (ie I hated Dumbo and Old Yeller). However, I have grown up a bit since then, and I am now in college. A good friend of mine recently mentioned how fabulous she found this trilogy to be, and one rainy afternoon, I revisited the dusty copy I had let sit on my shelf for these past six years. I was absolutely riveted. I am a great fan and advocate of children's literature, but I have to say, I would not have appreciated the complex characterization and graphic imagery as much, had I not been so hasty as to ignore this work of fiction six years prior. I have read some of the past negative reviews of this book, and, drudging through the grammatically incorrect and misspelled drivel, have discerned that some readers are frustrated with the intense political and religious commentary found in the pages of this book. I, for one, was deeply appreciative of Mr. Pullman's ability to grip one's attention with childlike drama and adventure, as well as interject profound observations of our society. Some have likened this book to Harry Potter, but I would be more comfortable making an allusion to 'The Little Prince' by Antoine De Saint-Exupery- you can read it as a child and be pleasantly enchanted, or you can read it as an adult and come away with a greater understanding of the world and its people. The plot is at once endearingly childlike and deeply complex. This book is the essential "coming-of-age" saga, with all of the ups and downs of a young girl coming into her own. One of the most rewarding aspects of this story is watching the child, our heroine, Lyra, transform herself from a bratty, self-intitled, stubborn girl, into an intuative, compassionate, brave young lady, while on a quest to save her Uncle from a conspiracy resulting in his certain death, as well as discover the secret of the illusve and enigmatic "Dust". The fabulous, multi-faceted characters and their intricate relationships with Lyra leave little to be desired.
I have recommended, and will continue to recommend, this to all book-lovers in my life- be they eight (this is my little neighbor's favorite story) or eighty eight (my grandmother just finished the second book). Please be forewarned- Phillip Pullman is a master of "cliffhanger" endings, so I would advise investing in the entire series.
Rating:
Summary: I was a Pullman virgin...
Review: ...I could NOT for the life of me put it down! I took it to the dinner table, I clutched it while I watched TV, and I tried to read it and do homework at the same time. I tell you, it was insane! Well... at the end of second fateful day of reading it... I finished it! And I wanted more! After being a Pullman virgin for so many years, I was finally addicted. Well...Lyra is a girl living at Jordan College, a place in a world much like ours, but infinitely unlike it at the same time. In Lyra's world, people have daemons; animals that go everywhere with them, and are ultimately an embodiment of their souls. With her daemon, Pantalaimon, Lyra gets caught up in all the action and excitement that has to do with a mysterious substance called Dust. Even at the end of the book, it is not quite clear what Dust is, but it is certain that it's important, and some people would do a LOT of evil things to find out more about it. On her adventures, Lyra encounters gyptians, witches, aeronauts, armored bears, really scary golden monkey daemons, and everything else you could imagine. There is absolutely nothing bad to say about this book. It does what it set out to do; and that is to bring the reader to a parallel world, and make him or her feel like he or she is really there. (Trite, I know. You've heard it before. But hey, it's true.) There are also intriguing references to religion; well, the book's strange version of it anyway. (I'm reading the third book, The Amber Spyglass, and am very interested in the perspective at which religion is looked at. But I digress...) I suppose what I'm saying is this: if you're a 12-year-old kid who needs a book to read, then you will love this book. If you're a 16-year-old gal (like me) who avoided this book for WAY too long, then you will love this book. If you're the parent of either of these two people, then you will love this book. If you're just a random person at a random age with a random taste in books, you will LOVE this book! I don't guarantee it, but I'm pretty close to it. However, I warn you: if you plan on reading The Golden Compass any time soon, just make sure you don't finish it while the bookstore/library is closed. You'll most likely end up pulling out your own eyebrows, or some such self-mutilation in your agony. You will be DYING to read the next one...
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