The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials)
The modern fantasy classic that Entertainment Weekly named an “All-Time Greatest Novel” and Newsweek hailed as a “Top 100 Book of All Time.” Philip Pullman takes readers to a world where humans have animal familiars and where parallel universes are within reach.
Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want.
But what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other...
A masterwork of storytelling and suspense, Philip Pullman's award-winning The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials series, which continues with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
A #1 New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction
Published in 40 Countries
"Arguably the best juvenile fantasy novel of the past twenty years." —The Washington Post
"Very grand indeed." —The New York Times
"Pullman is quite possibly a genius." —Newsweek
Don't miss Philip Pullman's epic new trilogy set in the world of His Dark Materials!
** THE BOOK OF DUST **
La Belle Sauvage
The Secret Commonwealth
Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want.
But what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other...
A masterwork of storytelling and suspense, Philip Pullman's award-winning The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials series, which continues with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
A #1 New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction
Published in 40 Countries
"Arguably the best juvenile fantasy novel of the past twenty years." —The Washington Post
"Very grand indeed." —The New York Times
"Pullman is quite possibly a genius." —Newsweek
Don't miss Philip Pullman's epic new trilogy set in the world of His Dark Materials!
** THE BOOK OF DUST **
La Belle Sauvage
The Secret Commonwealth
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
Okay so I wanted this to be as good as everyone says it is. So I read it again as an adult. Honestly, itâs. Alright. I havenât decided if Iâm going to read the rest of the series. I wish I liked it more.
My husband's been telling me to read this series for a while now. I haven't, just because I've been busy. But recently I was looking for a quick audiobook to read while I worked, and this one was about ten hours or so, so I thought I'd give it a whirl. Pretty solid kids' fantasy, I'd say.
Lyra is a bit of a run-around kid, hanging out on the streets and doing what she wants at Jordan College, in Oxford, mostly because she has no real parents. She has an uncle who looks in on her sometimes, but that's the majority of it. Thus, she's a little bit of a risk-taker, a little gutsy, and a little irreverent, which makes her a fun combo for a heroine. Somehow, she gets embroiled in this long-brewing plot to open a parallel universe, which takes a long time to piece together and build up to, but that's okay but there's lots to keep a reader interested.
There's an odd sense of magic, for one. Every human has a demon, that is part of their soul and takes the shape of an animal. When they're young, the demon can change shape but it solidifies into a single animal form when they're adults. There's also a really cool sense of the world being just a little bit different from ours. There's an Oxford and an England, but there's also Panserbjorn, which are huge armored polar bears that have their own kingdom in Norway and punch each others' jaws off.
Anyhow, I thought this book was pretty interesting. It was fairly plausible, it had some interesting ideas, and the characters were likable. Nothing really felt that silly, which to me is important in a children's fantasy book. I never felt like the author was talking down to the reader. (I hate that. If you think kids are too dumb to get your ideas outright, then don't write for children. Incidentally, they aren't that dumb, especially if you do it right.) I don't really get how this book is considered so damn blasphemous, but that is probably just because I'm really not very religious. I don't believe in god, so therefore I don't understand what a big deal some of this stuff apparently is. Oh well. It didn't lessen the enjoyment of the book for me.
A solid read!
Lyra is a bit of a run-around kid, hanging out on the streets and doing what she wants at Jordan College, in Oxford, mostly because she has no real parents. She has an uncle who looks in on her sometimes, but that's the majority of it. Thus, she's a little bit of a risk-taker, a little gutsy, and a little irreverent, which makes her a fun combo for a heroine. Somehow, she gets embroiled in this long-brewing plot to open a parallel universe, which takes a long time to piece together and build up to, but that's okay but there's lots to keep a reader interested.
There's an odd sense of magic, for one. Every human has a demon, that is part of their soul and takes the shape of an animal. When they're young, the demon can change shape but it solidifies into a single animal form when they're adults. There's also a really cool sense of the world being just a little bit different from ours. There's an Oxford and an England, but there's also Panserbjorn, which are huge armored polar bears that have their own kingdom in Norway and punch each others' jaws off.
Anyhow, I thought this book was pretty interesting. It was fairly plausible, it had some interesting ideas, and the characters were likable. Nothing really felt that silly, which to me is important in a children's fantasy book. I never felt like the author was talking down to the reader. (I hate that. If you think kids are too dumb to get your ideas outright, then don't write for children. Incidentally, they aren't that dumb, especially if you do it right.) I don't really get how this book is considered so damn blasphemous, but that is probably just because I'm really not very religious. I don't believe in god, so therefore I don't understand what a big deal some of this stuff apparently is. Oh well. It didn't lessen the enjoyment of the book for me.
A solid read!
I was surprised how much I enjoyed this book. The mythology is imaginative, well realized, and uses some really great iconography. The animal daemons are a great conceit, and I love the imagery of Dust. The individual characters are well filled out, as are the larger nations/cultures. At times the exposition is a bit blunt, I suppose— Iorek telling Lyra that his armor is his soul, e.g., or Lord Asriel explaining the power inherent in the daemon bond. But that bluntness has been typical of every fantasy/sci-fi book I've ever read, and it's handled as deftly here as I've seen in any other. Overall, this was a fun, engaging read, and I can't wait for my kids to read it so we can share a discussion.
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