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Summary: What a unique story!
Review: The Golden Compass is a book that I thought I wasn't going to finish. Then suddenly, I realized that it was growing and growing on me until I was to the point that I couldn't stop reading. I am glad that I stuck it out because this ended up being a teriffic book. It is set in an interesting world with complex characters and exciting action. I will not go into detail, but I will say that Iorek is the baddest bear ever. Literarily, it is a step up from most fantasy aimed at children 9-12 years old, and it is way better than the Chronicles of Narnia. I look forward to finishing the series, but I will wait about a month before I dive into number 2, because I like to spread my attention around. But the Golden Compass is just that, golden.
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Summary: Wonderful. What more could I say?
Review: This is quite possibly the best book that Phillip Pullman has ever written! Set in the plot of parallel world, witch clans, the Magesterium, and wickedness concealled behind every sweet-sounding lie, this is a most excellent adventure and fantasy!
Lyra Belacqua, the daughter of Lord Asriel, lives wild on the roofs of Jordon College, located in Oxford of a parallel world. Her life suddenly changes when due to the influence of a wonderful (or is she???) woman, Lyra must live in the heart of London. Life with this woman seems wonderful until she discovers the heart of an evil plan that involves the kidnapping and spiritual torture of innocent children.
Escaping from the flat, Lyra stumbles into the hands of a band of gyptians, who agree to help her and take her to the North, where there were possible sightings of these missing children. Helped or hindered along the way by Tartars, witches, armoured bears, and agents of the Church, Lyra discovers the true meaning behind this plot: To eliminate all human awareness from the world. Yet another plot exists, and it is for the opposite. Can Lyra help the good side in time? Or will she be doomed to share the fate of the other children??? Find out for yourself.
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Summary: An alternate world filled with daemons and bears
Review: Imagine a world where one's soul is shared with a daemon. These creatures appear in animal form, changing often when young, taking a permanent form following puberty. In The Golden Compass, the reader first meets Lyra Belacque, a 12-year-old girl, and her daemon Pantalaimon, who live in Jordan College. Not as one of the students, but as a ward of the school. So it seems. Her only relative, Uncle Lord Asriel, visits occasionally. At these times, he generally criticizes her for not behaving in the manner she should. However, when the story opens, Lord Asriel is visiting the college for an entirely different reason, one that triggers the adventures on which she is launched.Accustomed to having nearly perfect freedom, roaming the city with some children, warring with others, she suddenly finds herself taken away to London by Mrs. Coulter. Her new responsibilities include assisting the older woman, in what Lyra does not know. But during a party, she discovers that Mrs. Coulter is associated with the Gobblers, people who snatch children from the streets, for what purpose, no one knows. She runs away into the night, not knowing where to go. A group of Gyptians find her and protect her. They know more about her past and her future than she does herself. Their way leads north where Lord Asriel is himself a prisoner, guarded by polar bears. Before leaving Jordan College, Lyra was given a strange instrument resembling a compass. Over time, she learns its purpose and how to use it. With this, the friendship of a bear, and the help of the Gyptians, Lyra seeks out the missing children and her uncle. This is the first of the "His Dark Materials" series. Read it and start on a new adventure.
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Summary: The newest classic on the block
Review: It's nice to see a real children's classic born within one's own lifetime. For a lot of kids living today most of the fantasies contained in the classical canon tend to be Madeline L'Engle, C.S. Lewis or J.R.R. Tolkein. Which is all fine and good, but once in a while you'd like to see something a little more recent. None of this is to say that the "Harry Potter" books aren't classic. Of course they are. But the "His Dark Materials" series (of which "The Golden Compass" is the first book) fairly reeks of greatness. It is a retelling of Milton's "Paradise Lost" for children. It is Dante and Nietzsche for the kiddie set. And it is amazing. For a lot of books I like to describe the storyline by beginning, "The plot is simple...". Not so here. The plot is complex, but not necessarily confusing. In a world where the human soul accompanies each human being as an animal companion (or "daemon"), Lyra Belacqua and her daemon Pantalaimon become drawn into a series of mysteries. Encompassing everything from the nature of the soul to armored bears to the origin of sin itself, the book it an amazing tour de force. It has been universally acknowledged as near perfect, and interest in it will only grow. The great irony of, "The Golden Compass" and its subsequent follow-ups, is the lack of interest the religious right has taken in it. In a country where "Harry Potter" is banned like clockwork for supposed ties to witchcraft, here we have a book that is actually saying that the church (in Lyra's world anyway) is corrupt. So where's the public outcry at Pullman? The book burnings and rending of garments? My suspicion is that we won't be hearing so much as a peep about the "evil" in this book until the movie comes out. Just wait and see. But is this a good book for children? Well, yes and no. If you have a child that is into "The Lord of the Rings" and was able to read his or her way through that entire series, then "His Dark Materials" shouldn't be too difficult for them. For others, they may wish to wait a little while before they plunge into its complex weaving of the nature of good and evil. There are some pretty dark moments in this book, no doubt. My mother is not a fan of "children in peril" and this book pretty much infuriated her at its end. Thin-skinned readers beware... this book is not for you. But for those adept at interpreting the written word, who have open minds and a penchant for a skillfully woven tale, "The Golden Compass" stands as the greatest literary achievement written in the name of children since "A Wrinkle In Time".
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Summary: Amazingly original setting!
Review: The Golden Compass is the first book in the trilogy, His Dark Materials, by Philip Pullman. I would give this book a double thumbs up. Lyra Belacqua ia a young girl who loves doing nothing but playing and causing trouble at her home, Jordan College in Oxford. But her Oxford is not like ours. Lyra has a dæmon called Pantalaimon, her own personal image of her soul in animal form, just like all the other humans in her world. She scuttles around, climbing on the roofs, throwing small plums at pretend kidnappers, waging war against the brickburners' children, and exploring the catacombs underneath the oratory. Everything is as it has been for all of Lyra's childhood until her uncle, Lord Asriel, comes to visit. Lord Asriel has come to give a presentation and Lyra is so interested that she finds a way into the room where it is to take place, the forbidden Retiring Room where only men are allowed. First Pan and Lyra prevent an assassination attempt on her powerful uncle. And while hiding in a wardrobe, she hears her uncle talk about and unknown Dust, a particle too small for the eye to see. Before Lyra realizes what is going on, she is swept up into the heart of a terrible struggle where she is forced to make life or death decisions that could change the world forever. She befriends gyptians, witches, and deadly armored bears, all in an attempt to try and win this more-than-mortal battle.
In this book, Philip Pullman paints a great masterpiece in the mind of the entranced reader. We wish the last page would never turn. He doesn't make everything clear, so you're guessing through until the end. The Golden Compass has it all: danger, power, love, loss, betrayal, and an amazingly original setting with hundreds of different worlds. This great page-turner promies to delight readers of all ages.
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Summary: The Golden Compass
Review: The Golden Compass is an adventure where a girl, Lyra Belacqua, finds out about things that she wasn't supposed to. Then she goes on an adventure containing gyptians, armored bears, and witches. It has a good cliff hanger ending so you want to read the next books.
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Summary: Can I give 20 stars?
Review: Lyra Belacqua is content to be running wild among the scholars of Jordan College, waging war on the brickburner's children, or clambering over the rooftops with Roger, the kitchen boy who is her particular friend. But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, catapults her into the heart of a terrible struggle - a struggle where Lyra is forced to seek help from witch clans, gyptians and formidable armored bears. And as she hurtles toward danger in the cold far North, young Lyra never suspects the shocking truth: she alone is destined to win, or to lose, this more-than-mortal battle.
The Golden Compass is the first of the three great books from the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. Pullman does a great job of wrapping you up in the action, carrying you along, and all the while digging deeper into the story. If you liked the Harry Potter books, you will LOVE this book.
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Summary: Metaphysical fantasy in wildly original setting.
Review: "The Golden Compass" blends the childhood exploration feel of "A Wrinkle in Time" with a brilliantly original setting in a novel of sparkling detail and subtle depth. Driven by the mysterious abductions of children and the vanishing of her uncle, precocious Lyra passes through different settings and characters on an idealistic rescue quest. Each new locale presents interesting characters, particularly the exiled polar bear Iorek Byrnison, but the settings and foils rarely reappear once Lyra has moved into the next phase. This constantly changing backdrop gives the novel the feel of a journey, but it prevents the development of any long-term character relationships. Lyra's bond to Iorek comes the closest to such a connection, producing the gripping section where she bluffs through polar bear politics to help him. Lyra's character grows but always within her child's perspective, never more delicately crafted by Pullman in the climaxing encounter. Pullman's original world bursts with imagination in armored polar bears and religious metaphysics blended from fantasy ideas and actual theology. Perhaps his most genius stroke is 'daemons,' companion creatures accompanying every human. They provide an animal personification of character traits and emotions, and Pullman works their vital importance into the core of the plot. The ending of "The Golden Compass" may seem light on action, but the conversations and the reactions of the three main characters ingeniously develop Lyra's character, flesh out the major villain, and turn Lyra's childhood idolation on its ear. Pullman's writing brilliantly straddles the line between young adult works like "A Wrinkle in Time," that can appear thin from an adult perspective, and more mentally rigorous adult fantasy. "The Golden Compass" is an adventure story about a young girl, but Pullman's subtly drawn intellectual conflict provides plenty of meat for adult readers.
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Summary: interesting
Review: it was exciting and a good read for children over ten. it is a great adventure story and a good ending setup for the next two books.
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Summary: What's not to like?
Review: What a great book!! As a reader, it is absolutely phenomenal but doesn't start as good as some recent reads like The Kingdoms and the Elves of the Reaches!! Still, I have to say that I am happy that there are books out there that entertain so well. The book does have a bit of a dark edge to it, as do the Harry Potter or Kingdoms and the Elves books. But Pullman does a great job of wrapping you up in the action, carrying you along, and all the while digging deeper into the story. It's a great story and you'll enjoy it.
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