The Golden Compass

I finished reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman this morning. First, credit goes to Amy for telling me about the books two years ago. It’s been a while, but I would certainly say that it was her recommendation that piqued my curiosity. I don’t want to write too much about it right now since it is the first book in a trilogy and I would rather treat them as a whole like I did with The City of Ember and The People of Sparks yesterday. Still I wanted to jot down at least a few things to organize my thoughts on the subject more than anything. *There will be spoilers so don’t keep reading if you don’t want to know.*

The Golden Compass is interesting because I really am not sure how to describe it. It takes place in an alternate world where all people are accompanied by a dæmon, which is an animal representation of the person’s soul. Adult’s dæmons are a particular animal, but children’s can change shapes until they are frozen around puberty. I’m impressed with Pullman’s ability to characterize the relationship between people and dæmons without leaning too much on exposition. Even the discussion Lyra has with a sailor about why dæmons must eventually take a particular shape doesn’t feel inorganic. The set up worked well enough to allow me to feel properly horrified when Lyra’s dæmon, Pantalaimon is nearly cut off.

I’m fascinated by the Dust and the philosophical and religious ideas hinted at by Lord Asriel’s explanation. Speaking of Lord Asriel, he and Mrs. Coulter are amazing characters and I can’t wait to see more of them in the next two books. I spent the whole book imagining Asriel as a benevolent father, even though I should have known better, and was pretty shocked by most of the last ten to twenty pages.

This is another book that should make a pretty good movie and has a phenomenal cast. I’m really looking forward to seeing what Daniel Craig does with Lord Asriel.

Now I'm going to go get started on The Subtle Knife!