The Golden Compass: Lyra's World

I must admit all the religious resistance to this book series made me march right out to the bookstore and purchase it. This first book in the series outlines the rise to crisis which opens the 2nd book. This is an excellent tale of deception, destiny, love, and courage. Lyra's world is fascinating, full of wispy witches impervious to cold, crazy cliff-dwelling demon creatures, and further still absolutely mad adults. My favorite part of the book is his notion of what it would be like to have your spirit live outside of you. In this case, men usually have female spirits, and women have male spirits. And much like Native American tradition, the spirits appear in a talking animal form. The love people have with their spirits is incredible. I think the author makes a huge point about "spirit" in general, especially when he shows us what happens to people when their spirits are damaged or missing. One of the most important crisis in the books is the separation of humans from their spirits. Why is that interesting to me? I think we are on the verge of a very similar situation with the advance of computing and modelling "consciousness" with microporcessors and huge memory cores. We now have stuffed animals who can interface over infrared or USB ports and be programmed wtih a child's name, likes, dislikes, etc. These "beings" can even learn verbally now, as we have crossed the threshold into talking to machines on the phone. I cannot be the only one to find it extremely disconcerting when contacting my bank and having a disembodied voice say "I didn't recognize your response." I believe this is an allegory of the impending future where technology and biology blurr into a big mess, where the boundaries of spirit, consciousness, and humanity will become very confused, and various factions will come to blows about whose "belief system" will dominate the "new order." For the Sci-fi and Fantasy fans who think about such things this is an excellent book. For younger readers, the action sequences and more emotional content will be the main focus, but as adults, they both will come into play in the enjoyment of the book. I highly recommend it. Allow Lyra's world to stimulate thoughts of what it means to have a spirit (without the religious dogma), and how is that a part of our lives. Very interesting... Also, this is just a tiny glimpse of the thoughts that occured to me personally. Other readers with different backgrounds, tastes, and intelligence will undoubtedly uncover a lot more than I have. I think that truly is the mark of excellence. In many ways I think this takes me much farther than Tolkein's work ever could because it seems so much more applicable to the world as it stands right now. Also, if you have any interest in quantum physics, Pulman uses this new knowledge and applies it quite well to his "Dust" and "Dark Matter." I really think both he and physicists are on to something here. Another fantastic point I have been

I have to admit that I didn't hear anyone say anything about this book or the movie that was adapted from it until the moment I read that the actor Daniel Craig had to come out to defend it. I purchased a copy of the book and I just watched the movie and they are both amazing in their storytelling. Obviously Mr. Pullman is a gifted writer with a great imagination. The fact that someone has to defend this book just comes to show that some people still live in the Dark Ages, full of fear and ignorance, and unable to separate fiction from reality. I sincerely recommend both the book and the movie to those who want to enjoy a good piece of literature, especially those of you who are fans of the Harry Potter series.

Most of the negative reviews for anything regarding The Golden Compass are just people spouting fearful nonsense. If your religious beliefs are so fragile that they are threatened by a story book I would say that the problem is on your end. I love the His Dark Materials series and have given them as gifts to both children and adults who have loved them as well. If you are interested in a great story this book (and the original Pullman versions) are for you. If you are capable of entertaining ideas along with your fantasies you will love them. If, instead, you want bland assertions and rigidly fearsome rules then you should stick to the bible and leave ideas and thoughts to people who can handle them. Four Stars for this only because I'd reserve Five Stars for Pullman's originals.