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Brandi Meineke, Collection Development Specialist
9/6/2011 4:10:16 PM
The Golden Compass is the first book in the His Dark Materials series. Author Philip Pullman creates a beautiful and wonder-filled world parallel to our own. This series is likely to be an instant favorite for avid fantasy readers. Intelligent ice-bears rule the northern territories, making armor from “sky-metal.” Explorers search for portals to other worlds, occasionally finding them. Something or someone called Gobblers are stealing children off the street. A mysterious substance known as Dust motivates many people to do wonderful and terrible things. A young girl named Lyra gets thrown into a multitude of adventures, through which the reader gets to thoroughly explore this amazing land. And most magical of all are what they call daemons.
In this world every single human being has what is known as a daemon. These are best described as a fragment of the human’s soul personified as an animal. Daemons and their human are so connected that an injury that happens to one will be felt by the other. When the humans are young the daemons can alter their form to be anything the child imagines. There are a lot of rules and customs that relate to how humans and daemons interact. A human can touch and talk to their own daemon as much as they want. Often the daemon serves as a sort of advisor to the human. Daemons can touch each other, and often do when their humans are fighting or playing with one another. The greatest taboo in this world is for one person to touch another person’s daemon. It is rare for a human to even talk to someone else’s daemon.
The story begins with Lyra and her shape-shifting daemon Pantalaimon (shortened to Pan) having a usual day playing with the neighborhood children. Lyra is an orphan whose only guardian is her explorer uncle, Lord Asriel. He has left her in the care of a group of scholars at Jordan College, but has returned for a visit. She and Pan hide in a closet where they know he is to give a presentation of his most recent discoveries. While she is hiding she witnesses someone pour poison into a drink destined for Lord Asriel. When Lord Asriel and his snow leopard daemon, Stelmaria, are alone in the room Lyra jumps out of the closet, knocking the poisoned cup from his hand before he can drink it. He is grateful, but stern. He instructs her to hide in the closet again to keep watch for his potential murderers. It is during Lord Asriel’s presentation that Lyra first hears about Dust.
During this first novel very little is know about what Dust actually is. It seems to be some kind of sentient particle that can only be seen using special equipment. It does not settle on children, but it does settle on adults. Many scholars believe that it may be related to Original Sin. Many times in this series very philosophical and in-depth critiques of religion occur. From a teaching perspective, this could be problematic if the whole class were to read and discuss this novel. However, it does inspire a great deal of critical thinking, which makes it a great book to keep on the shelf for students to read individually.
When later in the story the child-snatching Gobblers kidnap Lyra's best friend Roger, she desperately wants to find him and save him. Right around the same time a mysterious woman visits the college and asks Lyra to be her assistant. The woman is a young, beautiful widow named Mrs. Coulter whose daemon is a nameless golden monkey, that seems wild and never speaks in a human tongue. Mrs. Coulter promises Lyra they will travel to the arctic and find where the Gobblers took her friend. Before she leaves Jordan College the headmaster gives her a very special gift. It is a Golden Compass (aka the alethiometer). With this device Lyra can use engraved symbols to find out the truth about anything. It is a very powerful and rare item, and she is instructed to never let Mrs. Coulter know she has it. While Lyra lives with her she learns little of Dust and begins to doubt they are ever going to set out on their journey. Eventually, the golden monkey discovers the alethiometer and Lyra and Pan run away.
They travel to the north and meet the fabled ice bears. Lyra makes a powerful alley in a bear called Iorek Byrnison when she helps him regain his rightful place as the king of the ice bears. It is with Iorek’s help that Lyra discovers where the stolen children have been taken and what unspeakable thing is being done to them. The stolen children have been used in experiments that separate a person from their daemon. After this done to them are complacent and dull. They have no dreams, fear, or hope. The ruling powers seem to be attempting to create a powerful yet obedient army through this horrid practice.
The most suspenseful moment in the novel comes when Lyra is shoved into one side of a divided cage. Then a person actually touches Pan and shoves him into the other side of the cage. Lyra can’t breathe when the other person’s hands are on her daemon. Before she can recover from this shock an electric field begins to lower between her and her dearest Pan. It is heart wrenching to read Lyra and Pan’s declarations of love while they can feel the electric knife dividing them apart. The lower it goes, the more helpless the situation seems. At the last second they are saved by a surprise from the past: Mrs. Coulter. She tears open the cages and grabs Lyra while the golden monkey rescues Pan. The scientists running the experiment are shocked, until Mrs. Coulter confesses that Lyra is her daughter. To add to the surprise, it is discovered that Lord Asriel, the man Lyra has long believed to be her uncle, is actually her father.
After a daring escape facilitated by her numerous friends she made along her adventure, Lyra and Roger meet up with Lord Asriel. Lyra is excited to be with her father and away from the gruesome experiments done under her mother’s supervision. This happiness does not last long. When one morning Lyra wakes up to find Roger and Lord Asriel gone, she follows. She soon finds them and, rushing towards them as fast as she can, she witnesses Lord Asriel kill Roger’s daemon, which opens up a hole to a multitude of other worlds. Roger dies when his daemon perishes. The book ends as Lyra watched Lord Asriel travel into one of these other worlds.
This is a very thought-provoking series. Questioning the ruling power (in this case a theocracy) is a major theme. Both of Lyra’s parents seem to have questionable morality. She cannot rely on either one for guidance and usually finds herself struggling against them. Friendship and loyalty are very strong traits in Lyra’s character. Lyra is independent and is constantly trying to do the right thing and fix the mistakes she has made. This would be a great independent read for any fantasy loving middle or high schooler.
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