The Golden Compass

Title: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials - Book 1)

Author: Philip Pullman

Pages: 351

Genre: Fantasy

Grade: A-

Synopsis: Lyra Belacqua is an orphan living at Jordan College in Oxford, England.  Lyra's Oxford is not like our own.  Everybody has a daemon in animal form, which is analogous to our souls.  Lyra spends her days racing along the roofs of the college, playing in the mud with her dear friend Roger and wreaking havoc wherever she can.  This continues until she spies an attempt to poison her uncle, which sets things in motion that leads her on a journey to save children who are being abducted and taken somewhere to the north.

My Review: I've read this book once before, but I wanted to re-read it before I got into the rest of the His Dark Materials Trilogy (Original review).  I really enjoy the story and was excited to find the full trilogy for cheap at the DI.  Lyra is a precocious pre-teen with a big heart and who is not afraid of big ideas. 

The Golden Compass

Title: The Golden Compass

Author: Philip Pullman

Pages: 9 discs

Genre: Children's Fiction

Grade: B+

Synopsis: Lyra Belacqua is an orphan girl that has grown up at Oxford University. Her world is slightly different than ours in that all humans have a personal daemon, which is the manifestation of their souls in an animal form. When people are young their daemons can easily change from one type of animal to another. After puberty, the daemons assume one animal form that they keep for the rest of their lives. Children throughout Britain begin disappearing, including Lyra's friend Roger. Lyra goes on a quest to find her friend Roger and hopefully save the other children as well.

My Review: I had heard that this was a pretty controversial book, but after reading it, I don't see why. The book does portray "The Church" as the bad guy, but it is in an indirect way. The book is definitely a children's book, but I enjoyed it and am looking forward to reading the remaining books of the trilogy.