Product Description

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #225053 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 32 pages

Features

• ISBN13: 9780545016179
• Condition: NEW
• Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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Customer Reviews

Great Opener for a Trilogy
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 arguing for years is that SCIENCE is a RELIGION. Please read the trilogy before becoming upset. I know it is controversial to say, but see it through the author's eyes for a bit. I believe he would totally agree and I see it in his 2nd book, where he contrasts "our world" with Lyra's. This is truly a fascinating look at ourselves and what we take for granted on a daily basis.

Good introduction to an AMAZING 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.

Good Story if you can overlook the Religious aspect
I will try to keep this review fairly short because I don't want to get into any religious debates, but I will say that if you are a Christian and are curious about this book, please keep in mind that the author is an atheist and adamantly against Christian beliefs. If you are easily offended by what I would consider bashing of the Christian religion, I would not recommend this book to you, or I would suggest you read it with the expectation that you will be offended. Pullman basically writes that God is actually the evil one and homosexual angels enter into the equation as victims of which Christianity claims as sin. I am not taking a stance on either of these views, simply stating what is in the book and to be aware.

This book was excellently written and if not taken as a personal attack on the religion, one can appreciate the storyline. The characters were well developed and the story as a whole kept moving and kept my attention. I did enjoy listening to all these books on CD, as each character had a different person playing their voice. I think I enjoyed listening to the books more than I would have enjoyed reading the books. The end was excellently riveting and really stays with you after the story concludes. I highly recommend this series on a literary basis.

I would like to add as a side note, the church I was attending at the time the movie was released had no good to say about the books, and claimed Mr. Pullman was attempting to get his atheistic views out to the youth and basically sway them against Christianity. While I have no confirmation of this, I did contact Mr. Pullman through his website and asked for his clarification on this so I could specifically respond to my church's claims. He is the only author I have ever contacted that has not responded to me. You may make your own deductions from this if you are reading this ahead of your child and trying to decide whether or not to let them read it. The religious aspects do not get thrown into the mix until the second and third books, for the most part.