The modern fantasy classic that Entertainment Weekly named an “All-Time Greatest Novel” and Newsweek hailed as a “Top 100 Book of All Time.” Philip Pullman takes readers to a world where humans have animal familiars and where parallel universes are within reach.Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they … take the children they steal–including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.
Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want.
But what Lyra doesn’t know is that to help on of them will be to betray the other…
A masterwork of storytelling and suspense, Philip Pullman’s award-winning The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials series, which contintues with The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass.
** Includes an exciting preview of THE BOOK OF DUST, the long-awaited new book from Philip Pullman set in the world of His Dark Materials! **
A #1 New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children’s Fiction
Published in 40 Countries
“Arguably the best juvenile fantasy novel of the past twenty years.” —The Washington Post
“Very grand indeed.” —The New York Times
“Pullman is quite possibly a genius.” –Newsweek
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Can’t wait for the series!!!
The Golden Compass was one of my all-time favorite books. I’ve never read a steampunk/scifi/atheist/spritual fantasy book like it. I wish I could find more books that impact me like the His Dark Materials books.
I love The Golden Compass film, but I had never actually read the series until now. I was worried the trilogy opener would be more intended for and captivating to young readers, but Pullman proves that childhood classics are gems even when revisited (or opened for the first time) as adults.
Lyra Belacqua is the perfect protagonist for elementary …
This series by Philip Pullman was a big favorite of mine as a kid. It’s a little more serious than what I was used to reading as a 12 year old but the content is so interesting and this alternate universe fills the imagination. The main character (Lyra) grows a lot within the series and she is driven by the overwhelming need to help her best …
I first got this book as part of a paperback set of the trilogy when I was 7 years old, and for many years, I tried to fall into this series as easily as so many millions of readers had before me. I would pick it up periodically, but for some reason, I just never connected with the story – perhaps because I never identified with wild, brash Lyra, …
Life-changing. Haunting. I have loved this book for years, and truly? I think of it every day. A fantasy world that’s almost-London, a story that’s almost-possible, and maybe it IS true, we just aren’t aware of it. Touching and philosophical, and relentlessly emotional and action-filled and full of exploration of relationships and spirituality …
This is the first in a 3-part fantasy/sci-fi series. It is quick reading, but well-done and very enjoyable. I like good sci-fi (there is far more bad sci-fi than good!). I generally dislike fantasy because there is no foreshadowing and the authors are to lazy or incompetent to set up the solution to a problem before hand – they merely change the …
This book opened my mind up as a kid. THE possibilities of other realms. Having part of your soul as your pet that would be your best friend for life. It was such a great read. The Subtle Knife was even betterThe Subtle Knife . A world were a knife can open into other worlds was just a great idea too.
The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, #1) by Philip Pullman – What I love about this series is the fact that it feels like high fantasy, but the world building is still accessible to middle grade readers. I would say that this is for more middle/high school aged kids because there are some more mature themes, but I loved rereading them as an …
In the world of The Golden Compass, every human has a daemon. They are an extension of a person’s soul. Whatever a daemon feels, their human feels as well. Lyra and her daemon Pan spend their days wandering around Oxford college, listening to the Scholars when they choose and wandering the streets to play with other children. Always ready for …
Spectacular. To call His Dark Materials an impressive achievement is to damn it with faint praise. Bold, imaginative, daring, intelligent, emotional. It is all of these and more. It just gets better and better with each book, culminating finally in an unexpected but satisfying climax complete with a heart wrenching denouement. An ambitious work …
I feel guilty for not liking this series more but there you have it. I wish I’d never bought or read it.
Just finished the first book of His Strange Materials and I have already ordered the second one! I absolutely loved the golden compass. While it would seem like a children’s book it definitely isn’t and it tackles religious matters and finding the strength to leave a toxic family behind brilliantly. I think it’s a great fantasy novel and for those …
Another memorable children’s book that is highly original.
What to say when a book already has so many reviews. Here is my rambling.
For starters, if you saw the movie several years ago, forget it. It barely resembles the book at all.
Pullman has created an incredible universe, an Oxford set in an alternate neo-Victorian/steampunk universe complete with flying witches, zeppelins, gypsies or gyptians, …
Ahhhh this was SUCH a cool, interesting, intriguing, FUN read! I never read this series as a kid, but my boyfriend and I exchanged the series on Christmas Eve and decided to read them together and then watch the new HBO series. First book down and I am HOOKED. I’ll admit, at first, I was a little worried. There was a lot going on and a lot of …
My daughter recommended this series to me since we had both enjoyed Blake Crouch’s Dark Matter and she remarked on the similarities in the themes, especially in books 2 & 3 of the trilogy. This is billed as a YA novel and was an engrossing read. I was fascinated to see how a fantasy YA novel could incorporate the complex topic of parallel worlds. …
A capturing world with a strong-minded heroine. The tv series is great as well if you love the book like I do.
Of course, I read this book many years ago, but upon the release of the new BBC series, I picked it up once more.
Full of interesting, complex characters; charm and lore, the world Pullman has created grows fuller the harder you look. He has an unusual approach to magic, in that it is almost written as science, but it never loses …
Would I have liked Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass as a child? Probably. I certainly did as an adult.
This young-adult, modern fantasy—the first in Pullman’s His Dark Materials series—stars a scrappy girl named Lyra who grew up as an orphan looked after by the staff of a fictional college in Oxford, England. But when her friend Roger is …