The Golden Compass, a book by Philip Pullman is the first book of the His Dark Materials series. The main character, Lyra Belacqua joins the expedition to the north in search of the secrets of the “Dust” and the alethiometer, a tool used to tell the truth. The story takes place in the parallel world, where every human exists with a daemon, which shows the person’s external expression. The name of the city and places she visits are just like the one in the actual world. The story begins with Lyra saving Lord Asriel from the poison at Jordan College at Oxford. There, she grabs information about the “Dust” and gets the alethiometer. She later goes to Mrs. Coulter, who claims to be Lyra’s “mother”. Lyra suspects that she is trying to steal her alethiometer, so she runs away and joins the expedition to the north.
As I read this book, I had a slightly harder time understanding each detail of the plot and settings, but it was for sure interesting. It made me want to read again to discover something new. This book is fantasy, but it is also based on religion. It was curious about how they used one of the most sensitive topics to the plot to add some spice to the story. Overall, I think the story is fine. I would definitely like to watch the movie version of this, as the scenery of this book is beautiful and fascinating. I recommend giving this one a try for a nice fantasy story.
Review written by Yuuto, Grade 9