I was ready to give this an enthusiastic this is perfect
review until the last 100 pages or so. Despite a muddled plot toward the end, it’s still the best young adult book I’ve read since Un Lun Dun, narrowly edging out Nnedi Okorafor’s Zahrah the Windseeker. The protagonist Lyra is exactly what I look for in young adult fiction: smart, inquisitive, bold, and almost unafraid of authority. The bad guys are believable. The plot is sort of a hero quest sort of tale, but instead of chasing some MacGuffin, Lyra leaves home to save a friend. It’s top notch.
Lyra Belacqua is a parentless child living at Jordan College in Oxford England. A somewhat alternate England, as this one appears to have World War I era technology, as well as witches and giant armored bears, but those come later. The biggest difference between the world Lyra inhabits and ours are dæmons. Personal spirits that accompany someone wherever they go. If they separate too far, both feel the distance keenly. When young, dæmons can change shape, though they always take an animal shape. But after puberty, dæmons settle into one form.
She lives at Jordan because her uncle Lord Asriel is politically connected. At Jordan she spends her days running the streets with servant’s kids causing all sorts of mischief. Until the Gobblers start snatching children. At first the Gobblers seem like a parental myth to scare their children: a criminal band that lures kids away never to be seen again. But they are real. After several of her gyptian
(something like gypsies) friends disappear, Lyra talks her way onto the gyptian rescue party, heading north to Lapland where the children are rumored to be held captive. Lyra’s secret weapon is an alethiometer, a golden compass-like device which allows Lyra to determine the truth of anything.
The first thing that impressed me about the book is the character of Lyra. I think Lyra is the ideal of the kind of character I want in my young adult fiction. She’s smart, and smart throughout the book. Pullman doesn’t have her behave in an uncharacteristically dumb manner to move the plot along, ever. She’s curious and inquisitive. She thinks nothing of exploring the roof, or the catacombs. She’s bold. She gets herself into the gyptian rescue mission by accosting the leader of the gyptians and asking. Of course, she has the alethiometer too. I can’t think of any young adult protagonists that’s I’ve read who had all these qualities. Zahrah perhaps, but she’s not quite so bold. Lyra does not fear the unknown or the world. At one point in the rescue mission, the alethiometer tells her a kidnapped child is in a town nearby, but not on the way to the party’s destination. Rather than risk the entire mission, the leader John Faa decides to stick to the plan. Lyra heads off with an armored bear without the group (with permission though) to investigate.
Friendship and needing other people is a theme throughout the book. People always have their dæmons by their sides. They reassure. They help with things a person can’t, like pass a message on to another person’s dæmon who can pass the message quietly to the other person. A dæmon is a constant companion. Lyra also values her street urchin friends. She joins the rescue not because of duty, but because of friendship. They are all that she has, having grown up without her parents. She sort of attempts to attach herself to Mrs. Coulter as a role model, but it’s a bad fit fairly quickly. Lyra takes her leave when she believes that Coulter is involved with the Gobblers.
Towards the end, starting with the culmination of the rescue mission, I felt the plotting switched tracks too abruptly on a few occasions. I can’t say too much without spoiling it, but it was of the sort of transition that got me asking wait, how’d they get here?
Not so much that it wasn’t explained, which is my usual beef when I don’t understand where a character is. Pullman explains it. They just seem to go a different direction without some logical steps that would normally happen, such as talking with other characters to let them know where they are going. It definitely makes it a faster pace though. Not awful. Just something I wish had better setup.
Highly recommended.
Some other blogged reviews:
Title: The Golden Compass
Original Title: Northern Lights
Author: Philip Pullman
Cover creator: Ericka Meltzer O’Rourke
Series: His Dark Materials; 1
Imprint / publisher: Alfred A. Knopf / Random House
Format: Paperback
Length: 399 p.
Publication date: September 2002 (originally 1995)
ISBN-13: 978-0-375-82345-9
Subject: Missing persons — Experiments — Fiction
Subject: Kidnapping — Fiction
Subject: Arctic regions — Fiction
LC classification: PZ7.P968Go 1996
