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.

An excellent book much to my surprise. If you had told me a month ago that I'd love a book that featured talking animals, I would never have believed you. Pullman's world has so many odd and interesting things going for it, I experienced the same thrill as I did when I first read Dune. Excellent characters, especially Lyra, of course. I'm starting the second book tomorrow.

Já conhecia a história desse primeiro livro, então não tive grandes surpresas, apesar de ainda sentir empolgação e vontade de continuar a história conforme ia lendo. O mundo de Pullman é muito rico e cheio de camadas que, neste ponto, a gente só consegue ver e entender um pedacinho. Imagino o tanto de coisa que ainda tem por vir nos próximos livros da série. Muito bem escrito e com muitas passagens que dão material pro leitor pensar por algum tempo.

Executive Summary: Started off pretty good, but I lost momentum as the book went on. Still, there is enough here for me to continue on with the next book.

Audiobook: I initially really loved the audio, but by the end I was starting to get tired of it a bit. The book itself is narrated by the author (I believe) and he does a great job of it.

The dialogue is done by a rather large cast of readers/voice actors. It's more like an audio drama than an an audio book.

Unfortunately, I found Lyra's voice was starting to grate a little after awhile. I'll still continue on with the series in audio though, as my enjoyment was probably more put off by the story than the audio.

Full Review
This one has been on my list for awhile, and I got the book on sale earlier this year. A few friends decided to do a reread along with me on my first go of it.

I started our really into the story. I loved learning about the world, and in particular how people and their demons interact. I think the demon aspect is what interested me most.

In some ways this is a fantastical alternative history story. It feels like early 1900's in England as far as locations and technology go, but where everyone has a demon and their are talking bears and air ships.

I'm certainly not the target audience here, but that's never stopped me with other well written books aimed at younger audiences. I like Lyra right away from the start, but as the book went on, I liked her less. She's a kid, and she acts like one, but that wasn't my issue I don't think. In particular it's that's she seems to lie almost constantly in order to get ahead, and it always works. Or so it felt like to me.

I wasn't particularly excited by the bears either. I should have been, and maybe as a kid I'd be enamored, but I just kind of found them uninteresting for some reason.

Then there is the magic compass itself. It's a cool idea, and I'd love to have one. However, I felt like it was overused by the author as a convenient plot device to move the story alone and make everything a lot easier on Lyra. She didn't have to be clever or figure anything out on her own, she just needed to consult the compass for what to do and then lie and lie BIG.

That all may make it sound like I didn't like the book. It was fine, just not as good as I was expecting, especially after the start.

What really has me interested in the next book is the mysterious city in the sky. What does it mean? How does it relate to dust? Hopefully the next book will build nicely on that stuff.

Another successful re-read!

Lyra is a young girl who lives in the care of university scholars in Oxford. She lives in a world where everyone has a daemon; the physical manifestation of their soul as an animal. When the Gobblers come to Oxford and steal her best friend, Lyra embarks on a dangerous journey to save him.

I have a lot of nostalgia for this book, and I found reading it to be a lovely trip down memory lane. Not only did I remember the plot fairly well, but I still enjoyed all the twists and details that occurred along the way. I can never decide if this book is YA or children's, but as it deals with some heavier topics I would lean towards YA. It's actually one of the few YA books I would recommend for those who prefer to read only adult novels as I thought both the themes and execution were excellently done.

I only gave it four stars so the rest of the series had the potential to beat it. I might come back and update my rating.

After hearing about the religious controversy surrounding this series, I was interested. After the Catholic League described it as “Atheism for kids”, I added it to my list. The movie (which is OK, aside from rewriting the ending, and removing all mentions of religion) didn't do it justice though. If the thought of children going off to kill god in parallel universes sounds interesting, check these out.

I thought I'd like this but, I had the hardest time getting myself to pay attention to the story. It's well written and I understand why this is loved, but I couldn't bring myself to care about the characters or plot, maybe this is my fault ‘cause I read this in the middle of reading another fantasy book that I do like a lot and so every time I pulled myself away to read this, I just wanted to read the other instead.
But then again, I do recall not being interested in this book as a kid too, so maybe it's just not the story for me.

This was my second time reading The Golden Compass and I was surprised to find that it didn't quite live up to my memory of it. I think that much of the magic and wonder that I had associated with it was actually contained in its sequel, The Subtle Knife, but bled into my mental image of this book since I read them in such quick succession.

The plot of this novel is pretty straightforward, and much of it is dedicated to establishing the universe of the trilogy and the mysteries that are to be solved in the subsequent installments.

Although it's not my favorite, The Golden Compass will no doubt remain a staple of the YA fantasy canon for years to come. I'm looking forward to seeing the upcoming HBO show, as this series is extremely deserving of a good adaptation.

Is this book for children - absolutely not. But is it a great book - indeed it is.

We have an intricate plot, set in a world that is our own (except that it isn't), and carried out by some of the most intriguing and duplicitous characters, that will never leave you indifferent.

The book is full adventure and whimsy and lovely winter atmosphere and I read it within a day with no desire to stop at any point.

Highly recommend.

After seeing the new trailer for the HBO series I wanted to read the book before seeing the adaptation. Years ago I watched the movie and I have heard the controversy surrounding the series. So I felt now was the time to read or in this case listen to the book and get my own perspective. My raw feeling after finishing this book was positive I found the story enjoyable and exciting. I would also categorize this book as grim dark and I do see the similarities between the book and the Catholic Church and I can see where the criticism comes from but I also feel this is just like many other fantasy or maybe better yet historical fiction. So from a readers perspective I don't see how this story is that much different that a book where the civil war or WWII have different out comes similar to Amazon's Man in the High Castle. From a Catholics perspective I take offense with the authors beliefs but I will continue to read the rest of the series as just a fantasy novel and try not to linger on the politics or read too much into the authors intent. Finally, one criticism I do have and it may be related to listening to the audio book instead of actually reading the book was that feeling that the story time jumped or changed directions a lot maybe that was the authors intent so story was told without have long sections to tell the full journey.

For the first half or so of the book, I was very into it. I like the world, I liked Lyra, but around the time she got to Svalbard, things started to go downhill. A plan that shouldn't have worked at all, worked perfectly, and the amount of things she was not asking the alethiometer, but should have been asking, started to skyrocket.

By all accounts, Lyra is an intelligent and inquisitive girl, so her not asking things like “What am I supposed to bring to Lord Asriel?” or “What is Lord Asriel planning?” etc. are weird. If she asked those questions, and then thought about how if Dust is moving the alethiometer, maybe it's not trustworthy, great, that provides genuine tension, but not asking at all is just dumb. I've always complained about the Harry Potter structure, where you don't really find out what was happening until the end when Dumbledore tells you. This does the same thing, except Lyra is willfully ignorant, whereas Harry is actively trying to figure things out and just doesn't know the full picture.

I did enjoy reading it, and it's well written, but the promise of seeing whatever the golden city is and finding out the true nature of Dust just isn't enough if this is how it goes from here on out. It is definitely a solid read, but it could've been great.

Frustrating in that it's slow going at the onset as it works to establish the rules of this world. Elements that will no doubt figure heavily in later books are teasingly introduced, including the idea of Dust and the city in the Aurora. Bookending that is a non-ending that simply opens the door into Book 2.

It's that chewy centre where all the goodness lays. Packed with adventure and an ever growing cast of incredible characters. Loved it.

Taken as an individual book I give it a 3 (it's so incomplete!) but I suspect the trilogy will fill in the gaps and clarify the themes Pullman is striving for.