Book Review: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1), by Philip Pullman

The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials #1), by Philip Pullman
★★★★★ and a ♥

Synopsis: Lyra Belacqua is content to run wild among the scholars of Jordan College, with her daemon familiar always by her side. But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, draws her to the heart of a terrible struggle—a struggle born of Gobblers and stolen children, witch clans and armored bears. And as she hurtles toward danger in the cold far North, young Lyra never suspects the shocking truth: she alone is destined to win, or to lose, this more-than-mortal battle
In A Sentence: A excellent read that impresses me every time.

My Thoughts: This series had a huge impact on me when I was a kid; I loved it back then and I love it now.
I think what impresses me right off the bat is the world-building that Pullman did. He throws you into this new world without any warning of what it’s going to be like, allowing us the reader to find out for ourselves the differences between this world and ours. It’s a little confusing at first (I remember as a kid wondering what a daemon was), but then as you begin to figure things out, you begin to really appreciate how much thought was put into this world. I would put Pullman’s world-building skills right up there with J.R.R. Tolkien!
The character development is very good too. Lyra really is a just a little kid who gets tossed into the middle of something big and terrifying. She doesn’t have any special powers, but she is stubborn and determined. Reading this story made me feel like I was following the perspective of a little girl, not the perspective of an adult trying to depict the POV of a child.
There is so much more I can say about this book, but I think I’ll just sum up and say that this story is wonderfully creative, action-packed, and beautifully written. If you’ve never read it before, you should definitely try it out. It’s a great original fantasy story, and part of a very inspiring trilogy.


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