The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) [Hardcover]

Philip Pullman (Author)

Book Description

Series: His Dark Materials | Publication Date: April 16, 1996

In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Some books improve with age--the age of the reader, that is. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman's heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own--nor is her world. For one thing, people there each have a personal daemon, the manifestation of their soul in animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science, theology, and magic are closely allied:

As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had daemons just as humans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them.

Not that Lyra spends much time worrying about it; what she likes best is "clambering over the College roofs with Roger the kitchen boy who was her particular friend, to spit plum stones on the heads of passing Scholars or to hoot like owls outside a window where a tutorial was going on, or racing through the narrow streets, or stealing apples from the market, or waging war." But Lyra's carefree existence changes forever when she and her daemon, Pantalaimon, first prevent an assassination attempt against her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, and then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust. Soon she and Pan are swept up in a dangerous game involving disappearing children, a beautiful woman with a golden monkey daemon, a trip to the far north, and a set of allies ranging from "gyptians" to witches to an armor-clad polar bear.

In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiece that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardened realist. Best of all, the author doesn't speak down to his audience, nor does he pull his punches; there is genuine terror in this book, and heartbreak, betrayal, and loss. There is also love, loyalty, and an abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelms it. This is one of those rare novels that one wishes would never end. Fortunately, its sequel, The Subtle Knife, will help put off that inevitability for a while longer. --Alix Wilber

From Publishers Weekly

If Pullman's imagination dazzled in the Victorian thrillers that culminated with The Tin Princess, in this first volume of a fantasy trilogy it is nothing short of breathtaking. Here Earth is one of only five planets in the solar system, every human has a daemon (the soul embodied as an animal familiar) and, in a time similar to our late 19th century, Oxford scholars and agents of the supreme Calvinist Church are in a race to unleash the power that will enable them to cross the bridge to a parallel universe. The story line has all the hallmarks of a myth: brought up ignorant of her true identity, 11-year-old Lyra goes on a quest from East Anglia to the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate Roger and her imprisoned uncle, Lord Asriel. Deceptions and treacheries threaten at every turn, and she is not yet certain how to read the mysterious truth-telling instrument that is her only guide. After escaping from the charming and sinister Mrs. Coulter, she joins a group of "gyptians" in search of their children, who, like Roger, have been spirited away by Mrs. Coulter's henchmen, the Gobblers. Along the way Lyra is guided by friendly witches and attacked by malevolent ones, aided by an armored polar bear and a Texan balloonist, and nearly made a victim of the Gobblers' cruel experiments. As always, Pullman is a master at combining impeccable characterizations and seamless plotting, maintaining a crackling pace to create scene upon scene of almost unbearable tension. This glittering gem will leave readers of all ages eagerly awaiting the next installment of Lyra's adventures. 100,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo. Ages 10-up.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Reading level: Ages 12 and up
  
• Hardcover: 416 pages
• Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers; 1st edition (April 16, 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0679879242
• ISBN-13: 978-0679879244
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.4 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1,513 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #752,994 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

208 of 223 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Imaginative, impressive, not all morally injurious, June 18, 2005

By 

M. J. JACKSON (Somewhere in Scotland....) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) (Hardcover)

First of all this is really a review of the trilogy and not The Golden Compass on its own - (I prefer the British title Northern Lights and I wonder why it has a different title in North America?).

Its been a long time since I read a book ostensibly for children, possibly the last time was when I was an actual child unless you count a couple of adult re-readings of Tolkien - but I felt I had to read it to know what the fuss was about - both from the ample praise given to these books by critics and also some of the controversy they seem to have provoked - some of which is touched on in these reviews. And yeah I was impressed - I felt genuinely gripped by the plot and went out and bought both sequels right after reading Northern Lights and read them all in a day and its not everyday I do that. Incidentally I don't want to sound like I'm boasting but the last few books I read included Jorge Luis Borges, Albert Camus and Umberto Eco - all fairly grown up, intellectual authors so the previous reviewer's comment that the only people who'd enjoy this are either children or just stupid is just blatantly untrue. There is so much to admire in these works - the creation of Lyra's world with its alternative version of history, the interesting touch of the daemons and the way they represent the characters' natures, the depiction of the frozen north with its Panserborne and witches etc was just fascinating, along with the other parallel worlds visited over the trilogy (though Lyra's is the most fully realised I think) as was the whole underlying framework of Pullman's universe with its blend of theoretical physics, William Blake, Paradise lost, theology etc - you have to salute Pullman's creativity and imagination here. Neither did I agree with some comments about the writing style which I actually thought was quite good - I didn't have any problems with the characterisation, dialogue, descriptions etc - all a lot better than Tolkien for example IMHO. Having said that the trilogy wasn't perfect - I thought part one was better than the others and part three was perhaps slightly weaker - having created this imaginary universe and built up the plot over the first two volumes I think it was hard for Pullman to bring it all to a conclusion in a way that fully did justice the brilliance of the underlying concepts which is why I'm not giving it five stars. Also there were too many deus ex machina moments where characters were rescued by the excessively timely intervention of some ally. But I really, truly enjoyed reading this trilogy and found several things to ponder on afterwards - if I had read it as a child it would undoubtedly had been one of my all time favourites.

Amazon is not an appropriate forum for political or religious discussion but I am a little saddened and amazed at some of the comments made by some reviewers which if anything unintentionally show just how right Pullman is on many things. The last book I reviewed on Amazon was Eco's The Name of the Rose which deals with heresy in the middle ages - reading some reactions you can see how little the world has moved on in some ways with people as quick as ever to shout "burn the heretic!" the minute they see something they disagree with, however imperfectly they have understood it. Some of the comments seem bizarre - the vague accusation of "pederasty" seems bizarre - I must have missed the child pornography section of this work. I certainly knew about sex and love (or thought I did) at age 13 as did most people and the rather tender blossoming of love between Will and Lyra is handled with such delicacy (there is in fact no actual sex here as far as I can see) that this says far more about the people making the claims than it does about the actual book. As for the accusation that Pullman is ignorant and believes Calvin was a catholic pope(!) this seems to stem from someone flicking through the book looking for something to get annoyed about rather than reading it - I would have thought that the idea that this is a parallel universe with a substantially different history from ours (eg in which the Reformation never happened) is something that most people would grasp in a few short pages and I'm pretty sure that Oxford Professor Pullman knows that Calvin was never pope. I don't believe there is much misogyny here either (I think a confusion between the briefly expressed views of an immature character who living in a backward world and those of the author)

As for the anticlericalism - well clearly Pullman IS against rigid authoritarian systems of religious thought but again this is set in a parallel universe where the church is really standing in for any number of real theocratic regimes from the medieval catholic church (who did far worse things than mentioned in this book incidentally eg the brutal suppression of the Cathars in the Albigensian crusade - "Kill them all! God will recognise his own!" - this quote is from a real Catholic bishop about what to do with the civilian prisoners -women, children etc in a captured Cathar town) to the secular theocracies of the Soviet Union and the Third Reich. I don't think he is actually personally accusing the late John Paul II of trying to surgically amputate children's souls here - that seems a depressingly literal take on things - so literal in fact you wonder why some people bother reading fiction? Or even manage to function on a day to day basis in a world filled with metaphor?

Frankly given all the fuss I was expecting this book to be far more heretical and religion-bashing than it actually was. I suppose people like a friend of mine's cousins who ban Christmas tree fairies for being "satanic" and consider the Disney movie "Pocahontas" to be a work of the devil will probably not like it. Personally I consider this book to be quite a moral work though not in a preachy or dogmatic manner and in a way which also recognises shades of grey - it seems to stress the right qualities that I would certainly like any child of mine to learn - tolerance, friendship, love, the courage to do what is right, to be sceptical about dogma and not to be blindly obedient to authority - someone disapproved of this book because of the last point - well after the history of the 20th century with the Soviet union, Third Reich etc I'm quite surprised that some people still think that unthinkingly following orders is such a great idea. In any case there is another famous work where the protagonist takes on the religious and secular powers that be - its called "The New Testament". In the real world the battle between the Kingdom and the Republic rages on as it does fictionally and personally I think Jesus might not have been on the side that many seem to think he would've. As for the anti-God theme in later parts of the trilogy - well for starters the "God" of these books is clearly shown not to be the creator God of Christianity and the "bad guys" are those who have usurped him and used his authority for their ends as many have in human history. Asriel's war against God is shown to be misguided and missing the point in any case. Pullman IS anti-organised religion and he IS an atheist but I think some people have just simply misread him in their outrage and tried to simplify what he is actually saying to make it easier to dismiss

I could go on but what's the point? The bottom line is that if you think you won't like this because of its moral or religious take on things you almost certainly won't - though I notice my UK edition has a rather glowing quote from a review by The Church Times which suggests that not all believers are as outraged as some. As for me I thought it was gripping, highly imaginative and thoroughly enjoyable.

PS this book was recommended to me by a Christian.

181 of 209 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GOLDEN COMPASS (US title) = NORTHERN LIGHTS (UK title), July 22, 2005

By 

Kyra Troyan (CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Northern Lights (His Dark Materials) (Paperback)

For anyone else getting confused, apparently for some stupid reason they retitled the book for the US version. (It's not like it's a different language and we wouldn't understand the translation.) I was about to buy this book, thinking it was a continuation of the series that I loved when I realized the plot sounded remarkably familiar.

385 of 450 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Stop confusing us with different titles, July 29, 2005

By 

V. Arntzen "beckmonster" (Los Angeles, CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Northern Lights (His Dark Materials) (Paperback)

After reading Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials one realizes that Harry Potter is training wheels, wonderful, but training wheels nevertheless. Having said that: On the web page for Northern Lights, Amazon states: buy Northern Lights + His Dark Materials for whatever the lower price is. Why don't you clearly state that Northern Lights is the original UK title for The Golden Compass? I thought perhaps there was another volume. You are a good organization. Don't try to snooker us, please.