The Golden Compass

Source:  E-Book

Publisher: Scholastic Point

Age Group: 10 above

Genre: Young Adult Fantasy/Sci-fi

Pages: 399

In Series: Once upon a Time in The North (Prequel),The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, The Amber Spyglass, Lyra's Oxford (not part of trilogy), The Book of Dust (not part of trilogy)

I haven’t seen the movie, though a few years back I do remember seeing the trailer in cartoon network several times. In elementary school I had the wits to pick up fat book (100 pages + at that time meant that you were pure genius) and I do so quite remember picking up “The Northern Lights” and again like I did to every classic smack it down and utter the word rubbish and move away I did the same to The Northern Lights.

Its been five years ever since. I’ve picked it up again but as time as a e-book and the title as The Golden Compass.  The Golden Compass is the books American version and the The Northern Lights is the English Version. The strange thing is that the protagonist, Lyra calls the compass like object an Alethiometer, so what’s the fuss about the different names?

Northern Lights or as the Americans say The Golden Compass:

The Golden Compass takes place in a world similar to our own except that in that world technology is limited to aircraft and the dressing style resembles our Victorian era.

Lyra Belacqua the main protagonist of the story and her daemon, Pantalaimon (A soul which takes shape of any animal in pre-adolescent years and the fixes its shape later on) live in the scholar world of Oxford. During her years in Oxford she secretly learns about Dust from her Uncle Asriel. Dust is a form of elementary particle discovered by her Uncle that  falls from the sky and gets attracted to people (especially adults). The Church or Magisterium  that holds maximum power in Lyra’s world, believes that it may be the physical form of Original Sin.

Children start to disappear in Oxford the word is that Gobblers are taking them. When Lyra senses that they have taken her best friend Rojer, The Master of Jordan College in Oxford is under pressure from the church and turns Lyra over to Mrs. Coulter. Mrs. Coulter is nice and gives Lyra her most attention. Lyra is having the time of her life going to parties and studying with Mrs. Coulter but she misses her friend and his afraid for him. But Lyra knows what is right and long after all she is the owner of the Alethiometer, a device which tells you answers to any questions you seek.

The movie was supposed to be the

'Next Harry Potter' but ultimately 

failed to do well in the box office.

Style of writing:

Reading the first book, I was kind of surprised. I didn’t expect a children’s book to challenge the church and God at all. After researching about it, I found that it had been banned from several countries and that the book had distressed many people. I haven’t found the book insulting in any manner, that may be because I am not that religious neither am I Christian and seriously don’t really think that Pullman is trying to make children anti- Christian. He is just trying to spread the knowledge.

The symbolism of religion or basically Christianity, in this book was so clearly spelled out you didn’t even have to find it. In the end of the book Lord Azriel says he is trying to free humans from sin which in the His Dark Materials Trilogy is caused by dust. In the end he also makes a pathway towards the sky (heaven) so he can seek dust and destroy it to free all mortals from sin. To make things really clear, Pullman also gives his facts through Lord Azriel by reading a passage from the Bible about Original Sin and Adam and Eve. The Magisterium (The Church in Lyra’s world) is the law which is the law that God made to make Humans aware of sin. Lord Azriel is getting rid of sin while Mrs. Coulter tries to the human race by cutting the daemons (souls) of children when they are still sinless so they will be safe from being sinful and they wont have to die because of sin.

My Opinion:

I liked the Golden Compass a lot. Though, it resembles a bit to the Harry Potter world. Harry like Lyra who is a mere child and already has a destiny to follow and complete the only difference is that Lyra is not so encumbered with the responsibilities of the world. The difference between Rowling and Pullman was that His Dark Materials Trilogy was easy to decipher, like we knew that Mrs. Coulter was up to something unlike Harry Potter the readers discover the facts at the same time Harry does. The book was filled with cliff hangers and questions which were left unresolved. I didn’t even wait a second to pick up the second book. So, you better pick up the first one too.

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