The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass fails to build off the momentum it once had; a once promising fantasy adventure that leads with the impression of a sordid and macabre journey across an icy landscape fails to become anything more than a dollar store brand of it. Full of fantastical concepts that are failed to be sufficiently explained, the world within the novel is shallow and half baked, with concepts that don't make sense coupled with a story that lacks a creative flare to it.

The most prominent concept in the book are creatures called Daemons, who are extensions of a human being that follow them around. However, a concept of a companion is stretched so thin without significant explanation as to how they operate within society, the emphasis that Pullman places on them is baffling. These creatures speak and have human like traits, but lack any resemblance of a personality; it is impossible to gain sympathy for these things because Pullman barely talks about them. They should be significantly overpowered, with the animals of children being able to shapeshift into anything - that is almost never used. Their importance is contrived and forced because Pullman makes no attempt to make them interesting. Pantalaimon, the protagonist's Daemon, is useless - there is not a single point in the novel where I can say that he comforts her in any significant way, and yet we are told about their bonding, but never feel it emotionally. This wouldn't be such a big deal if the plot literally didn't revolve around this asinine concept, expecting us to be horrified around the revelation of what the villains to them - only they explain the ramifications within the same paragraph.

What do Daemons even do? It shouldn't be hard to write them like dogs or some other pet that entertains them. Or maybe they can act as a guardian since they can shape shift? But they should give the humans a significant advantage if the importance on them is so great that they become horrified when they see a human without them. They are an unearned emotional focal point that lacks the depth of one. You leave the book knowing almost just as much as you did entering it.

Perhaps with the emphasis that Pullman placed on Daemons, he perhaps forgot to create an interesting world. The most we get is a couple locations - which is fine - but the world lacks character. The most depth we get about the world is through Oxford, where we see a sharp class divide and gypsies living in the lower half - but we quickly leave that area before anything interesting happens, and instead we go on an adventure in such a boring area - ice tundras full of talking bears and witches. Each location is bereft of any interesting history, and the world is not believable enough for it to be excused. It is surface level: not described in great detail, just there to serve the plot.

None of the characters particularly stood out to me. Lyra is a decent enough protagonist, but has almost no depth besides going after her uncle. Every character has a goal, but not much of a motivation as to why - creating a flat character as a result. There are instances of interesting characterization, such as Chapter 18 where the action finally slows down and they talk about the world and themselves, but overall Pullman continues the narrative without attempting to make the characters interesting. No character arcs or flaws - just people going through the motions of an adventure.

The Golden Compass is an undercooked fantasy that fails to deliver on both ends on what makes an entertaining epic: a solid story and a solid world. The flaws present in the first act become more apparent as the story descends in quality from the first third of the book, failing to deliver on anything it promised. And no, I will not read any other entry if that was obvious already.