Rating: 
Summary: Fabulous! Wonderful! Glorious! Etc!
Review: I intended to write yet another rave review of the book, but instead, I think all you have to do is go and read the reviews of people who hate it. Surely a book loathed by people this small minded (from their reviews, anyway), pretentious and scathing can only be good. One person hadn't even read the book, and was slagging it of because of what critics said! I've learnt never to listen to quotes from critics, because you can get ompletely the wrong idea.Several more reviewers called The Golden Compass almost satanistic, overbearingly anti-Christian. But the anti-Church message is subtle. If you are someone who is offended at the idea that the Church could do terrible, cruel things, don't read this because you won't like it. Go and read some history books instead. If you are ready to be enchanted and pulled bodily along with Lyra on her desperate quest, experience pangs of longing for your own personal daemon, be breathless with shocked excitement, and wide-eyed with wondor at the landscape before you, do read it. And one more thing; there's a lot of people saying that this is not a children's book. It is. Whoever said adult themes didn't belong in children's books? I read this at the age of twelve, and fell in love with the book. So, you adults: just because YOU like it too, doesn't mean it's not written for us kids!
Rating:
Summary: Wonderful stuff
Review: The trilogy His Dark Materials is one of the most compelling that I have ever read. My entire family is reading it avidly, and fighting over the copies. It is at times a challenging book, and will offend religious bigots, who need to be offended anyway. The first book, offering an amazing parallel universe, has tremendous plot velocity, a cornicopia of amazing notions and really intruiging ideas. The second and third books are a little less compelling, as the number of plot lines grows too large to be managed. None-the-less, if you like philosophically motivated fantasy, YOU WILL LOVE THIS! If you are a religious fanatic, parts will be hard to take.
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This is just a great book. The writing is gorgeous, the world -- so like and yet so unlike our own -- is fully and finely drawn, and the characterization is amazing. Lyra is an amazing literary achievement. Writing a child who is so fiercely intelligent, perceptive, complex, and suspicious of others and yet is still a child must be one of the most difficult tasks a writer could take on. It's true that it questions Christianity, at least, but to say that religious people shouldn't read this seems to me to be insulting their intelligence and imagination. I just don't see how someone who believes they can begin to comprehend and appreciate the vastness and subtlety of God can't read and be enriched by a book of fantasy that argues, in a rich and complex manner, against the version of their religion that exists in a parallel world. Isn't true faith resilient enough for that? I would certainly give these books to the most devout people I know. The question of whether it's for adults or children seems to me more interesting. I'm an adult and I obviously love it. In that sense it's clearly for adults. I'm not sure about kids. There's no content that I would see as objectionable for children, but even though I tend to believe I had sophisticated taste in literature when I was younger, I'm not sure how I would have felt about this. I loved The Lord of the Rings as a pre-teen, for instance, but this is a more complex work -- emotionally, intellectually, and morally -- than that. Just keeping track of all the characters as the series progresses is something of a challenge, and understanding the analogies between Lyra's world and ours requires a fairly adult set of knowledge. But then, maybe kids would just enjoy it in other ways than I do, even though they'd be missing lots of what I appreciate. Who's to say the reverse is not true? In the end, with this much more than most books, I think it just depends on the person. I'm sure a smart 10 year old would get more out of it than a dumb-as-nails 30 year old any day.
Rating:
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!
Rating:
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???)
Rating: 
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.
Rating:
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!
Rating:
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!
Rating:
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.
Rating:
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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