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Summary: aLL iN aLL*
Review: ThE GoLdEn CoMpAss~ I think the Golden Compass was an exceptional book. For English class, I chose this novel out of four others. After talking to my classmates about their books, I know I chose the right book to read. Often times at night I have read more than the assigned amount-- I just couldn't put it down. Every page is packed with adventure, and the descriptions of the setting are fabulous. The Golden Compass is a great book not only for kids, but for adults too. The novel is great for every reader: adventure, fantasy, mystery, suspense, it has everything. The other reviews refere to this book as having the same thrill as the Harry Potter series. I don't think The Golden Compass had nearly as much imagination and creativity as J.K. Rowling's books. I was only dissapointed at the end of the book. You don't know what happens, you would have to read the sequels to find out. However, I already ordered The Subtle Knife, the sequel of the Golden Compass. It's a fantastic book, and I defenitly want to find out what happens to Lyra and the other characters.
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Summary: A Review of the Golden Compass
Review: I have recently read Phillip Pullman's The Golden Compass. For myself I found it was a very good book. I enjoy reading Fiction or Science Fiction books, but if you are not interested in these types I wouldn't recommend this book. Phillip Pullman used his imagination very well to create this book and it is part of what makes this book so interesting. I hate reading books that have parts where there is no action going on and it gets really boring. The Golden Compass is packed with exiting events and you are never just reading stuff, there is always external or internal conflict going on. Parts of the book are really suspenseful and you want to read on, and you can never tell what is going to happen next because Phillip Pullman writes things that you would never expect to happen, or even think of. This is a great book, and I really recommend you read it, I am sure you will enjoy it thoroughly.
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Summary: A THILLER FOR ALL AGES
Review: This is a must read for anyone. The amazing plot takes so many unexpected twists and turns that you just dont know what Lyra will do next. Pullman so vividly explains the characters with such imagination. I mean who would think of having everyone in the world have an animal thats like thier soul. Only one with such vivid imagination could think like that. Everyone knows those storys where the good guy always wins? Well this story is so far off of that, and with so many traitors and cover ups you just dont know what will happen. I'm telling you this is up there with Tolkien and Rowling, a must read for anyone!!
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Summary: Erica's Golden Compass Boook Review
Review: The Golden Compass, written by Phillip Pullman, was a very interesting read.It starts out taking place in England, but further on in the book,the main character Lyra travels North. This book also takes place in the future. The 6 main characters in this book were: Lyra, Pantalaimon, Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter, Farder Coram, and Iorek, the armored bear. In my opinion, Iorek was the best and most valued character in The Golden Compass. Iorek is strong and full of courage. Also, Iorek acts like a father to Lyra, and protects her.Here is my summary of the story:Lyra is a girl who lives in a collage. That is until a woman named Mrs.Coulter takes her away. But before Lyra leaves, the Master of the collage gives her a magical objcet called an alethometer. Although Lyra does not know it, she is destined to bring the end of destiny. Lyra travels north with a pack of gyptians, for she is determind to bring the alethometer to a very special person. I gave The Golden Compass 4 stars, 5 being the highest. I absolutly loved everything about this story, but would make one small change if I was the author. If I was the author, I would have made the book shorter by about 75 pages. In my point of veiw, 75 pages or less of the book was information that wasn't that important to the story, and that readers could have done without. Overall, The Golden Compass was a very good book, and I would recomend it to anyone who likes a mix of fantasy and science fiction.
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Summary: A must read fantasy!
Review: This book was well written, i could not put it down! The main character's life is such an adventure. Once you finish this book you will want to read the rest of Philip Pullman's trilogy. Philip Pullman did a fantastic job creating the events that take place. Once you finish reading one chapter you will automaticly want to read the next to find what Lyra will do next. If you don't like the way the book starts out keep on reading because it get's better each page of the way!
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Summary: The Tomboy's Daemon
Review: Lyra is a little girl who lives at Jordan College in the Oxford of another world like ours but different. Lyra receives routine visits by her "uncle" and during one such visit, overhears a conversation about "Dust." This seemingly unimportang event is the base of the book. The author could do a better job explaining what dust is. The girl herself has a wild spirit as a tomboy. Her daemon will fascinate you once you finally figure out what it is. It is also nice to read about the etiquette of this world and how you treat someone else's daemon. The resemblance of Lyra's world to ours is quite thought-provoking. It is also touching to read about Lyra's past. The plot is so exciting, the reader skips a lot of pages to find out what happens next instead of reading a lengthy description about the quite normal surroundings. You would need to have the next book in the trilogy instead of waiting because it stops right in the middle of the most exciting part. I would recomend this book to someone who has a lot of patience and someone who can draw picture's in their mind with given description.
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Summary: What a wonderful treat!
Review: I found Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy sort of by chance through Amazon, and ordered all three books in one go. What a treat it was to start with the Golden Compass, and know that I still had 2 books to go! (Paradoxically, that is why I've only given the trilogy 4 stars.... reading them all in one go may have been a trifle too much at one time. At the end I was slightly weary, and the world of the dead (The Amber Spyglass) was so frightening and heart-wrenching, and I found myself actually wishing that I'd had to wait a year or two between each book - well maybe not that long, but a little while.) I'm not much of a fantasy fan - my favorite stories for big and small children are the Narnia books and The Lord of the Rings. But this really measured up to those two series. I've also read and enjoyed Harry Potter, but I must say I thought Pullman was even better! An additional experience for me, apart from just enjoying a thrilling, excellent, fantastical read, was the way he described the windows into parallel worlds. Having just sadly and tragically lost my son, his parallel worlds helped me understand my feeling of slipping in and out of these two very distinct worlds - the world of utter sadness, and the world of "life goes on". And the escape into Pullman's fantasy world was extremely therapeutic! Read all three books, but maybe you should take a break in between....
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Summary: A great fantasy-adventure story
Review: I would rate this as the best and most accessible of Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy. The author has the great gift of being able to create a coherent and believable world inhabited by rounded and fascinating characters. The plot moves fast and the suspense is maintained throughout. Pullman plants the reader straight in Lyra's world which seems very similar to ours, but is disconcertingly different. The effect is slightly disorienting at first, but as the action moves ahead, the reader is swept along by the sheer force of the author's imagination. The book is rich in detail and the author has clearly drawn on his own wide reading and experience to create the settings and characters. The narrative is sometimes hard to follow, but the book is well worth the effort because of its depth and richness. Of the three novels in the trilogy I liked this one the best as the author becomes more ambitious and philosophical in the later books and I don't think he is quite successful in keeping the action and the ideas together. In the last book (The Amber Spyglass) especially, he seems to be drawing more self-consciously on literary models such as Milton's Paradise Lost and in doing so I think he complicates things somewhat, although older readers with more reading experience might enjoy thinking about the ideas presented.
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Summary: A Daring New Trilogy
Review: Many people had suggested the Golden Compass to me, but due to my terrible habit of judging books by their cover, I never got around to it. After I while, I gave in and was surprised. This is an interesting book, fresh new idea with an incredibly spunky heroine. As she treks across a world much like ours, yet different, we encounter a large assortment of magical creatures: armoured bears, witches, etc. Flipping through the pages just makes you wonder what exactly is going to happen to Lyra next. But sometimes, I felt that Philip Pullman went a little overboard with the descriptions. The storyline is so interesting, you might find yourself skipping a couple of pages, wanting to find out what happens next, not a description of a sunset. All in all, this book isn't the best in the trilogy, but you should read it for no book from His Dark Materials stands alone.
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Summary: The real problem is the plot.
Review: A good hero gets into some trouble, then takes action to get out of trouble, solve the mystery, win the day. The "hero" of this book has all her problems solved by others. She overhears a conversation about "Dust" and is dragged off to live with a mysterious woman, where she overhears a conversation about missing children. She's rescued by others who tell her more information, and so on, ad nauseum. If you don't mind a passive hero who has all the "twist and turns" handed to her on a silver platter, and you don't mind suffering through dialect that substitutes for character development (all the lower class people say "en't" instead of "ain't" -- en't that clever), then you'll love this book. For truly captivating storytelling, re-read Harry Potter.
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