Northern Lights? The Golden Compass? Who Cares, the Book Is Great!

Like I’ve mentioned in my Artemis Fowl review, I was curious if I could find a new, modern book for children which I’d like as much as I liked Harry Potter books. Well, I’ve found it, and it’s called Golden Compass. Actually, my copy is called Northern Lights; I guess it’s the European title, like Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is in Europe called Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone. The author of Golden Compass (or Northern Lights, depending on where you live) is Philip Pullman, a man I’ve never heard of before, but whose books I’ll definitely have to look for.

The World

Imagine a world similar to our own, but with noticeable differences. The Church is more powerful there; John Calvin had managed to become a Pope. Theology and science are intertwined; every research must be approved of by the Church. Countries are somewhat different; the history is somewhat different. And the people are a bit different, too. There are witches living in the North, all of them women, all of them so long-lived they seem immortal to the rest of humans. There are Armored Bears, big, intelligent polar bears who occasionally have dealings with humans. There are several kinds of ghosts.

And there are daemons. Daemons look like animals; every human has one. While humans are young (before puberty, more or less) their daemon can change as the human’s mood changes; later daemons choose one shape and stick to it for the rest of their lives. Daemons are seen as human souls in animal shape. If the human dies, his/her daemon will die too. If the daemon is killed (by the way, it’s unacceptable to touch another person’s daemon, for whatever reason), the human will also die. The daemon and the human can’t stand to be more than few yards away from each other; it causes them strong physical and emotional pain. In spite of their animal shape, daemons talk like humans; they talk to their humans, to other daemons, and if really necessary, to other humans.

The Plot

In this world, there’s a twelve-year-old girl, Lyra Belacqua. Her daemon’s name is Pantalaimon. Lyra is an orphan, or so she’s told; she lives in the Jordan College at Oxford, and would be perfectly happy to spend the rest of her life there. Her education is haphazard, since she’s taught by College Scholars when some of them has time to teach her something, and is willing to do so. Her best friend is Roger, son of a kitchen servant; they spend their time running over rooftops (which is forbidden), exploring the ground under the College (which is also forbidden) and having little wars with the city children (yeah, you guessed it – it’s forbidden). Lyra is a bright kid, but with nothing constant and interesting enough to occupy her attention, she’s apt to get herself into trouble.

Which is exactly what she does. First, almost incidentally, she saves her only living relative, her uncle lord Asriel, from poisoning. Then, after Roger disappears (all over the country children are disappearing, mostly Gyptian – gypsy-like people – children, but there are a lot of others, too), she’s determined to find him, since there’s talk about child-stealing gang. However, she’s sent away from the College with a lady whom she finds enchanting, and temporarily forgets about Roger. Lyra is soon to discover, though, that the lady is not as nice as she seems to be, and her adventures truly begin. She’ll have help, of course, but quite often she’ll have to rely on her own wit and courage (she has plenty of both), her daemon and her “alethiometer”, a gift from the College Master which looks like a golden compass with weird symbols and which no one can read without a book – no one, that is, except for Lyra.

The Characters

The characters are great. They are all believable, including Armored Bears and daemons. There’s more depth in them than in characters in the most of books, whether the books are for children or not. Just when you think you’ve figured out this character or that, he/she will surprise you; and yet, these surprises are logical and within the character. If there are one-dimensional characters in Golden Compass, I’ve failed to notice them.

The Series

Golden Compass is the first part of His Dark Materials trilogy. The second part is The Subtle Knife and the third is The Amber Spyglass.

Recommended…

This is a great book for children, but there’s also a lot of material to make it interesting for adults too. I’d say, if your kid is old enough to read Harry Potter books (and I’ve seen seven-year-olds enjoying them), he/she is old enough to read Golden Compass. There are some scary scenes and some violence in this book, but of the type which is more likely to excite the kid than to really scare it (however, if you’re unsure, read the book before you give it to your kid – you’ll enjoy it). Adults could enjoy the differences between Lyra’s world and ours; kids will certainly notice at least some of the differences, and are likely to get curious to learn more about the world they live in (Milton’s verses, geography, history, little bit of theology and theoretic physics, a lot about Arctic and ways to survive there – yup, it’s all in this book). The writing may seem a bit uneven at times, with a lot of questions and then, suddenly, a bunch of answers all in one place (with some questions unanswered still, of course), but this writing is very likely to suit the temperament of most kids.

If you’re looking for a Christmas gift for your kid, Golden Compass might be a good solution. About two thirds of the book happen in the Arctic, so your child is likely to be in the perfect mood for it.

Thanks for reading!