The Golden Compass

The Golden Compass - Philip Pullman

The story takes place in a world like ours, but different in many ways.

Lyra Belacqua is your average young girl. She knows nothing of real danger and pain. She plays amongst the other children from Oxford at Jordan College, where she lives with no family. Except her uncle, Lord Asriel, who only vists every so often. She gets in fights with the neighboring Gyptians, a huge clan of people. She plays in the basements of Oxford and climbs over the roofs.

Her daemon, (a physical form of a person's soul. Once the person meets adult-hood, the daemon loses its ability to change form and must settle on one form alone.) Pantalaimon (Pan for short), form is frequently a brown moth. He's all Lyra really has as a friend. They share thougts and feelings. When Lyra hurts Pan hurts.

Lyra and Pan sneak into a forbidden room in an Oxford house and she learns of "Dust" and the King of Svalbard, a panserbjørne, who is the king of the armoured bears. Dust is not just simple unswept dirt, but it is what makes pain exist and makes each person uinque. What is a panserbjørne? Does he have a daemon?

Soon children start dissapearing, apparently kidnapped by the "Gobblers." But what is a Gobbler? There are many theories and you don't find out what it exactly is until much later in the book. Is a Gobbler just a man that kidnaps someone and simply GOBBLES the child? Or is it something much more indepth than that? Are they cutting children's daemons away? What's happening to the children? Where are they?

Lyra meets Mrs. Coulter, a beautiful scholar, arctic explorer, and socialite, who takes a particular interest in Lyra. Her daemon a golden monkey. Lyra is fascinated with Mrs. Coulter's beauty and intelligence. Mrs. Coulter is an interesting character. She is very quiet, but very intellectual.

Just upon leaving Jordan College to live with Mrs. Coulter, Lyra's friend Roger disappears. Lyra believes he was abducted by the Gobblers. So she sets her mind to go North and find Roger and bring him back to safety. But before she leaves, Lyra is jolted awake and ushered into the Master of Jordan College's room. There is where she recieves the alethiometer: the golden compass.

This story is full of wonders and mystery, armoured bears and death, kidnapping and war, witches and pain.

Lyra must do what she is destined to do without realizing she's doing it. Will she succeed?

A MUST READ!