If it weren't for my book club, "The Golden Compass" is probably a book I would never have decided to read. I picked up a copy of the book from the library, only to have my 22 yr old daughter start it and tell me I was going to have to get another copy if I wanted to have it read in time for my next book club meeting. So I did...and I started reading with mixed feelings, wondering how a fantasy novel written for youth was going to capture my attention. Twenty pages in and I was hooked.

I thought the language might be intended for younger readers, but it's really not...this book is well written and challenges you to think. With all the religious controversy that I heard about this book I was prepared for that aspect, but instead found myself not necessarily paying any attention to anything but the story that the author, Philip Pullman, is telling.

To end this review: I loved "The Golden Compass"...I fell in love with the Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon...with the armoured bear, Iofur Raknison...with Farder Coram. I have the second and third book in the trilogy waiting for me...after the quick mystery that I decided to fit in first.

Far from your typical wish-fulfillment type adventure story for children, in which an ordinary kid discovers he or she has been endowed with a magical weapon or power or whatnot, and sets out to become a hero - His Dark Materials is a series for youngsters with some real philosophical and existential meat to it. It is no mere magic sword or treasure map discovered by Lyra our wiley protagonist, nor the magical ability to fly or turn invisible. What she learns instead, is that her enigmatic Uncle is conspiring to wage war against God. What she finds to get her started on her journey - an instrument called an alethiometer which allows her to decipher the truth in all matters of cosmology and discourse.
This is a story at it's heart about truth and free will -- the value of real human volition.

This is no Percy Jackson and certainly no Narnia -- Hallelujah, Amen.

Add to this impressive pseudo-Miltonian plot, this not-so morally cut and dried counter-thesis to CS Lewis' didactic Narnia series - a highly inventive Victorian steampunk fantasy world complete with airships, bow-wielding flying witches and a society of armour-sporting polar bears warring for dominance in the North Pole, and you've got yourself a pretty badass fantasy trilogy that children and adults seeking a more humanistic approach to fantasy will enjoy sinking their teeth into.

Okay fine, most kids aren't going to read this for the treatise on doing away with church made fabrications about the afterlife in order to focus on bettering the world at our finger tips in the present -- the life we have in front of us right now, but I think they'll sure as hell enjoy the armoured Polar Bears. I most certainly did, and then some.

I found the Golden Compass to be the most enjoyable installation, mostly for the physical distance covered in the actual journey and the compelling darkness of the ending. The Trilogy ends up playing out as an endorsement of free will over pious servitude. The fall of Adam and Eve is regarded by Pullman, as a positive event in mythology rather than the troublesome origin of all ill-fortune as is viewed by tradition. This is the kind of story most kids with devout church going parents will want to smuggle in from the library and read with a flashnight beneath the sheets at night.

And don't watch the movie.
It's crap.

The book was great! A bit too religious. First book.

This was a good book there where some parts that seemed to drag on for a little bit but other then that it ways very good with a lot of interesting plot twists.

This series is my favorite, it is a clinging suspensfull awesome book,
and if you don't read this book you really are missing out, Philip Pullman is my favorite author, these books won't let you down! Buy them! seriously. A must read for any age.

This series is my favorite, it is a clinging suspensfull awesome book,
and if you don't read this book you really are missing out, Philip Pullman is my favorite author, these books won't let you down! Buy them! seriously. A must read for any age.

I am a Christen and I stil love this book (and the whole series). The book didn't make me change my opinions about God or anything, it's just a book. I don't know why Christians or Catholics (or anyone who believes in a God) hate is so much.

the start of teh series that was so highly reccomended to em from my brother turned out to have a dissappointing begining. it was ok but not what i was expecting out of it. the first one lacked something that the others had although the ending for the first one is very cliff hanger if you like that sort of thing. I would reccomend this only cause the rest of teh series was good

Once I finished this book I had to go on to read the other two right away. I also found out that some side stories are out there in the cutiest hardcover format. So, of coarse, I had to read them too. I love the way Pullman writes. It draws you right into the story and does not let you go until it is finished with you.

Lyra is a 12 year old girl who has been raised at Jordan College in Oxford by scholars. She has been somewhat neglected and hence has become a 'wild' child. She plays with Roger, one of the kitchen maid's sons. When Lyra sneaks into the retiring room and catches sight of the Aurora Borealis and visions of an alternate world, she is excited beyond belief. Roger disappears one day and Lyra is terribly concerned.

Soon thereafter she is apprenticed to a Mrs. Coulter who is planning a trip to the Arctic. Before long however, Lyra finds out that Mrs. Coulter is really one of the people who are snatching children off the streets. The rumors of what are done with these children are horrendous. Lyra begins a real adventure and rescue.

Pullman has created a fantasy world that is wonderful. Each human has a daemon who is attached for life. Animals talk, witches fly and there are polar bear kings. All the stuff of a really good 'fairy' tale.

Lyra is a rebellious child who has grown up in a college with scholars because her parents were killed in an accident. She doesn't care to learn much, but would rather explore, play with her friends, and make fun of the scholars. Her daemon, Pantalaimon, has not yet taken a permanent form because Lyra is still a child. Each person in the world has a deamon, an animal that is the soul of the person, showing their emotion, defending their human counterpart and speaking to them.

When Lyra hides in a closet as her uncle comes over, she learns about the North and sees a child standing beside a man with a stream of dust coming out of the sky. Lyra is in awe and wants to travel to the North. She soon gets her chance when a woman asks Lyra to become her assistant in preparation for travelling North. But soon Lyra learns that there's more going on in the North than just scientific experiments. Children are being snatched from their home and they are never found, but there are rumors. Rumors of experimentation on children and their daemons.

For a fantasy novel, I was surprised at what a page turner this book was. It doesn't take too long to understand the alternate world that Pullman has created and get completely enveloped in it. The ending, however, isn't too satisfactory but this is because there's a book #2 and #3. I'm looking forward to reading the next one and seeing what else Lyra gets up to. She's a smart girl for a 12 year old!

A hypnotic, compelling fairytale, despite the difficulties of the opening segments. Destined to become a classic across all age groups.

Phillip Pullman creates a story set on an alternate Earth, in an alternate Oxford and London, England, that takes Lyra Belacqua, Oxford ward and hellian, into the perils of the Arctic and the mysteries of the Aurora Borealis.

While some of the concepts in the novel are not new and are predictable (a king lost then found; villains who end up related to the protagonist), others are deliciously novel or at least presented with a novel twist.

The writing is tight, and after the ponderous and confusing first segments the story suddenly coalesces and launches the reader on an adventure of high proportions. I found myself turning pages and hungering to return.

Some of the segments and concepts are indeed very dark, quite adult if moralistic, and perhaps a bit mature for children, although certainly I would recommend the novel to ages 13 to 90.

Overall a very good read.

This book is really wonderful! I am personally a bit of a Harry Potter freak (and a nerd :) ) and this stands up to it. The story is much darker, and also has a great deal of depth and very interesting themes. This would be a fab book for a book club, lots of great and dynamic discussions can be had.

Philip Pullman excels in the telling of the tale of Lyra Belacqua, a girl who has lived most of her life in Jordan College of Oxford of the late eighteen hundreds. When hidden in the wardrobe in the male-only Retiring Room with her daemon, Pantalaimon (basically her conscience in the form of an animal), Lyra witnesses the Master of the College pouring a poison in her uncle Asriel's wine. When the Master leaves, Asriel enters, and Lyra makes herself known to her uncle, telling him about the wine. Asriel spills the wine and shows the Scholars of Jordan College some photograms of his strange discoveries he found in the North, something called Dust. The tale escalates from here and with many twists in the plot, it was very unpredictable, surprising, and a wonderful tale.

This is one of the best novels I have read in a long long time. Once I picked up the book I could not but it down You should buy the whole trilogey.

After all the talk about Pullman's supposed anti-Catholicism or anti-Christianity or atheism or whatever one wants to label it, I approached The Golden Compass (known originally as Northern Lights) with an open mind and found something other than what I'd been told to expect.

I found elements that questioned Christianity and Catholicism and the nature of God and its works, but I also found elements that questioned parental authority, the ethical and practical roles of Science, and the nature of good and evil. And it is this consistent questioning that I see as the message of Pullman's first book of "His Dark Materials" -- not any of those supposedly dangerous messages that were focused on during the movie's release.

The notion that we should question everything, even if we are children -- or especially if we are children -- is one of the most important messages humankind can hear, and one of the hardest for us to learn or employ. Most people simply do not want to question. It takes work; it takes struggle; it takes strength, and far more strength than unquestioning faith or simple acceptance require.

The fact that Lyra questions everything around her at all times is her salvation. And ours if we would only learn the lesson.

Say what you like about Pullman's story, but regardless of your religion or politics or economics or taste he does something brave that needs to be respected -- he challenges us to think about everything.

I understand that he doesn't maintain the amazing level of The Golden Compass, nee Northern Lights, in the books that follow, but I am compelled to read them to see for myself. I think Pullman would appreciate that.

'The Golden Compass' is hailed as a modern classic and for good reason. Pullman had created a world so beautifully that we feel as if we are a part of it. The relationship between person and daemon is described with such flourish that you can feel the Lyra's pain and horror at the cruely of the 'Gobblers'. A must read for any lover of fantasy and adventure!

Though marketed as a children's fantasy, this book does deal with some mature themes, making it great for all ages. It has a very pure method of sucking you into this world, great for escapists of all ages!

If you like Harry Potter, then I definitely recommend checking out the His Dark Materials trilogy from Phillip Pullman! I had seen The Golden Compass in theatres this past Christmas and knew I had to read the book. It definitely did not disappoint me.

The main character, Lyra Belacqua, is a fun trickster who is definitely smarter than HP while still being sweet and sensitive. In this fantasy world, every person has a daemon, an animal that is sort of their "soul" and an outward expression of their feelings as well as a helpmate. Lyra's journey begins at an Oxford college and takes her throughout an alternate northern Europe, leading to her meeting many strange and endearing characters, while unravelling a mystery and rescuing her good friend Roger.

A caution: the book ends up being a lot darker than the movie, which I appreciated but did not expect. Best to take this book and clear your reading schedule of others so that you can truly appreciate the world that the author has created. I'm taking a break in between this one and the next so I can make the adventure last longer!

This is an excellent audio production of a great book. The author himself is the narrator and there is a full cast playing all the voices. It's very enjoyable to listen to, and it's unabridged so you're not missing out on any of the detail of the book.

Definitely worth listening to.