Book Review: The Golden Compass

Title: The Golden Compass
Author: Philip Pullman
Publisher: Random House Children’s Publisher
Pages: 399
Genre: Fantasy, adventure, fiction
Rating: 8/10

‘The Master took from his pocket a folded piece of paper and laid it on the table beside the wine. He took the stopper out of the mouth of a decanter containing a rich golden wine, unfolded the paper, and poured a thin stream of white powder into the decanter before crumpling the paper and throwing it into the fire. Then he took a pencil from his pocket, stirred the wine till the powder had dissolved, and replaced the stopper.
Lyra whispered, “Did you see that, Pan?”’

This excerpt describes the scene as seen by Lyra, and her daemon, Pan. A daemon is a part of you that is seen on the outside. But it is connected to you, so you can’t go that far apart. Lyra and Pan live in Oxford. They lived in Jordan College, since both of Lyra’s parents have died.

The Golden Compass is a book about a little girl, Lyra, her daemon, Pan, her uncle, Lord Asriel and an alethiometer, a golden instrument that could answer any question. It also about a bunch of bad people, who try and separate humans from their daemons, which is basically like ripping someone’s soul apart. These people are called the Gobblers, The Obligation Board. Lyra and Pan must try and save their friends who are being kidnapped by the Gobblers. Lord Asriel in the meantime is trying to make a portal to a different world. But when he suggests sacrifices that Lyra doesn’t agree with, for his experiment, things don’t go as Lyra planned.

My favorite character in this book is Pan. His full name is Pantalaimon, but Lyra calls him Pan for short. Being a daemon means that you can be any animal. But when you are an adult your daemon cannot change into another animal Right now Pan can be any animal, but soon he will be stuck as one animal forever.

A reason that I like The Golden Compass is because Mr. Pullman describes everything realistically. And the worlds that he describe seem magical in their own way. He makes the impossible, become a little less hard to believe.

Other reasons that I liked The Golden Compass were that even though some parts were boring most of the parts just grabbed my attention as if someone was waving a big red
flag. And even if that big red flag seemed miles/pages away, if I kept on walking/reading I would reach it.

Will Lyra be able to save her friends? Will she find out who her parents were? And who is the real Lyra? If Lyra survives will she be able to travel through the portal Lord Asriel has made?

Join Lyra and Pan on their adventure to save people from the Gobblers.