Living among scholars in the hallowed halls of Jordan College, Lyra hears rumors of a magical dust that supposedly possesses powers that can unite whole universes, and begins a difficult and dangerous journey to find it. - (Baker & Taylor)
The questions, discussion topics, and author information that follow are intended to enhance your group's reading of The Golden Compass . We hope that this guide will help you to navigate - alongside the story's young protagonist, Lyra Belacqua - Philip Pullman's richly imagined universe, populated by armored bears, gyptians, witches, and human beings, whose dæmons are never far from their side. Dæmons are one of the most striking, charming, and powerful images in The Golden Compass . These spirit-creatures, which seem like physical representations of the human soul, can change form to reflect the myriad of emotional states their humans go through as children. But in adulthood, each dæmon settles into the animal form that best reflects the inner nature of its human counterpart. It is in this unusual and imaginative creation that Pullman turns his sharpest mirror back onto his readers, helping us to imagine our own souls as precious, living extensions of ourselves that we can love, challenge, or even betray. The Golden Compass is a complex story that turns on a simple word: 'Dust.' This Dust does not gather in the unswept corners of Jordan College, Lyra's Oxford home. Rather, this Dust seems to reveal - or perhaps contain - the thing that makes each human being a unique creature. The concept of Dust provokes fear in some; others realize that mastery over Dust could be the source of great power. Although she does not quite realize it, Lyra - along with her dæmon Pantalaimon - finds her life inextricably entangled with the exploration of Dust. And as her understanding of Dust and her mastery over a mysterious tool called the alethiometer increases, the dangerous journey that she seems destined to make takes some astounding twists and turns. - (Random House, Inc.)
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 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 one 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 continues with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.
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
Don't miss Philip Pullman's epic new trilogy set in the world of His Dark Materials!
** THE BOOK OF DUST **
La Belle Sauvage
The Secret Commonwealth
- (Random House, Inc.)
PHILIP PULLMAN is one of the most acclaimed writers working today. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy, which has been named one of the top 100 books of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly. Pullman was knighted for his services to literature in the 2019 New Year Honours.
The Book of Dust, Pullman’s eagerly anticipated return to the world of His Dark Materials, will also be a book in three parts. It began with La Belle Sauvage and continues with The Secret Commonwealth.
Philip Pullman is the author of many other beloved novels. For younger readers: I Was a Rat!, Count Karlstein, Two Crafty Criminals!, Spring-Heeled Jack, and The Scarecrow and His Servant. For older readers: the Sally Lockhart quartet (The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, The Tiger in the Well, and The Tin Princess), The White Mercedes, and The Broken Bridge. He has written a magnificent collection, Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, and his essays and lectures on writing and storytelling have been gathered in a volume called Dæmon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling.
Philip Pullman lives in Oxford, England. - (Random House, Inc.)
PHILIP PULLMAN is one of the most acclaimed writers working today. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy, which has been named one of the top 100 books of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly. Pullman was knighted for his services to literature in the 2019 New Years Honours.
The Book of Dust, Pullman's eagerly anticipated return to the world of His Dark Materials, will also be a book in three parts. It began with La Belle Sauvage and continues with The Secret Commonwealth.
Philip Pullman is the author of many other beloved novels. For younger readers: I Was a Rat!, Count Karlstein, Two Crafty Criminals!, Spring-Heeled Jack, and The Scarecrow and His Servant. For older readers: the Sally Lockhart quartet (The Ruby in the Smoke, The Shadow in the North, The Tiger in the Well, and The Tin Princess), The White Mercedes, and The Broken Bridge. He has written a magnificent collection, Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, and his essays and lectures on writing and storytelling have been gathered in a volume called Dæmon Voices: On Stories and Storytelling.
Philip Pullman lives in Oxford, England. - (Random House, Inc.)
Book Report
This is the first in a series of three fantasy novels by Pullman, well-known for his Sally Lockhart (Rudy in the Smoke) series. The setting includes some elements of 19th-century England, but this is definitely a fantasy world. For example, every person has a daemon--an animal spirit. Lyra, 11, and her daemon Pantalaimon, live surrounded by scholars at Jordon College. Occasionally they are visited by her uncle Lord Asriel. During such a visit, Lyra hears of an entity called Dust and dangerous adventures in the North. At the same time, children are being kidnapped by Gobblers, and it is rumored that their daemons are being severed from them, an unimagined horror. Lyra's good friend Roger is one of those kidnapped. She also receives an alethiometer, a kind of compass, that only she can operate and use to tell the future. Suddenly, Lyra is removed from Jordan College by a cold, ruthless woman, who turns out to be her mother. She also learns that Lord Asrial, r imprisoned in the North, is her father. Lyra escapes from her mother and has all sorts of magical adventures rescuing her father. He turns out to be just as ruthless as her mother, sacrificing Roger to build a bridge across the aurora borealis to the world beyond. Lord Asriel intends to find the source of Dust so he can destroy it, but Lyra wonders if Dust is bad, as the grown- ups believe, or good? This is a rich, complex fantasy. Readers will appreciate its originality and the resourceful female protagonist. I recently heard fantasy writer Terry Brooks (Shannara series) speak and he recommended this book; I share his endorsement. Highly Recommended. Rosemary Knapp, Library Media Specialist, Camas (Washington) High School © 1996 Linworth Publishing, Inc.
Horn Book Guide Reviews
In Lyra's world, similar to our own but with some important differences, each human has a ""daemon,"" an animal familiar with whom one's life and destiny are entwined. Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon, have a great destiny in this sweeping, suspenseful fantasy novel, the first in a projected trilogy. Kidnapped children, armored bears, and evil science experiments are just some of the elements in the touching, exciting, and mysterious story. Copyright 1998 Horn Book Guide Reviews
Horn Book Magazine Reviews
An extraordinary, compelling fantasy, the first volume of a projected trilogy, is set in an alternate world, parallel to our own earth, but differing in many details. The most fascinating is the existence of dæmons, an integral part of every human being, much like a soul, but taking the form of an animal. Human and dæmon are tied by an emotional bond that cannot be broken without indescribable suffering or, more probably, death. The technology of this world is similar to that of our own of perhaps a century ago, with such things as anbaric light rather than electric, and balloons and zeppelins rather than airplanes. Our heroine is orphaned Lyra Belacqua, who lives with her dæmon, Pantalaimon, at Jordan College in Oxford, under the care of the Master. She is an unusual child: rough, inquisitive, wiry, a born leader, an accomplished liar, almost fearless. Soon after children begin disappearing all over the country and Lyra's guardian, Lord Asriel, is captured and imprisoned during an expedition to the Arctic, she is taken from the college by the beautiful, fascinating Mrs. Coulter. The Master of Jordan College has secretly given Lyra a rare and unusual instrument, the alethiometer, which looks like a compass and can be used to answer questions of every sort, even about the future. Her old friends the gyptians, who live in canal boats, rescue her, and mount an expedition to Lapland to locate the missing children. On the way Lyra encounters and helps to free Iorek Byrnison, a sentient armored bear, who becomes her most powerful defender. Lyra finds the missing children in a scientific experimental station, where they are being subjected to the hideous operation of intercision, which separates them from their dæmons. The reasons for this butchery are only part of the extremely complex plot, in which the unknowing Lyra is deeply involved. The characters of Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coulter, and Iorek Byrnison and the cold and beautiful Northern setting capture the reader's attention; the constantly twisting plot and escalating suspense are riveting; and Lyra and Pantalaimon are among the gutsiest and wiliest of adventurers. Touching, exciting, and mysterious by turns, this is a splendid work. a.a.f. Copyright 1998 Horn Book Magazine Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
~ Pullman (The Tin Princess, 1994, etc.) returns to the familiar territory of Victorian England, but this time inhabits an alternate Earth, where magic is an ordinary fact of life. Lyra Belacqua and her daemon familiar Pantalaimon spend their days teasing the scholars of Jordan College until her uncle, Lord Asriel, announces that he's learned of astonishing events taking place in the far north involving the aurora borealis. When Lyra rescues Asriel from an attempt on his life, it is only the beginning of a torrent of events that finds Lyra willingly abducted by the velvet Mrs. Coulter, a missionary of pediatric atrocities; a journey with gyptian clansmen to rescue the children who are destined to be severed from their daemons (an act that is clearly hideous); and Lyra's discovery of her unusual powers and destiny. Lyra may suffer from excessive spunk, but she is thorough, intelligent, and charming. The author's care in recreating Victorian speech affectations never hinders the action; copious amounts of gore will not dissuade the squeamish, for resonating at the story's center is the twinkling image of a celestial city. This first fantastic installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy propels readers along with horror and high adventure, a shattering tale that begins with a promise and delivers an entire universe. (Fiction. 12+) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews
Kirkus Reviews
~ Pullman (The Tin Princess, 1994, etc.) returns to the familiar territory of Victorian England, but this time inhabits an alternate Earth, where magic is an ordinary fact of life. Lyra Belacqua and her daemon familiar Pantalaimon spend their days teasing the scholars of Jordan College until her uncle, Lord Asriel, announces that he's learned of astonishing events taking place in the far north involving the aurora borealis. When Lyra rescues Asriel from an attempt on his life, it is only the beginning of a torrent of events that finds Lyra willingly abducted by the velvet Mrs. Coulter, a missionary of pediatric atrocities; a journey with gyptian clansmen to rescue the children who are destined to be severed from their daemons (an act that is clearly hideous); and Lyra's discovery of her unusual powers and destiny. Lyra may suffer from excessive spunk, but she is thorough, intelligent, and charming. The author's care in recreating Victorian speech affectations never hinders the action; copious amounts of gore will not dissuade the squeamish, for resonating at the story's center is the twinkling image of a celestial city. This first fantastic installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy propels readers along with horror and high adventure, a shattering tale that begins with a promise and delivers an entire universe. (Fiction. 12+) Copyright 1999 Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly Reviews
Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy now appears in sophisticated trade paperback editions, each title embossed within a runic emblem of antiqued gold. The backdrop of The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials, Book I sports a midnight blue map of the cosmos with the zodiacal ram at its center. The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass carry similarly intriguing cover art, and all three titles offer details not seen in the originals: in Compass and Knife, for example, Pullman's stamp-size b&w art introduces each chapter; Spyglass chapters open with literary quotes from Blake, the Bible, Dickinson and more. Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.
Publishers Weekly Reviews
In this deluxe trade paperback edition of the first in the celebrated Dark Materials trilogy, "Pullman is a master at combining impeccable characterizations and seamless plotting, maintaining a crackling pace to create scene upon scene of almost unbearable tension. Nothing short of breathtaking," said PW in a boxed review. Ages 12-up. (July) Copyright 1998 Publishers Weekly Reviews
Publishers Weekly Reviews
If Pullman's imagination dazzled in the Victorian thrillers that culminated with The Tin Princess, in this first volume of a fantasy trilogy it is nothing short of breathtaking. Here Earth is one of only five planets in the solar system, every human has a daemon (the soul embodied as an animal familiar) and, in a time similar to our late 19th century, Oxford scholars and agents of the supreme Calvinist Church are in a race to unleash the power that will enable them to cross the bridge to a parallel universe. The story line has all the hallmarks of a myth: brought up ignorant of her true identity, 11-year-old Lyra goes on a quest from East Anglia to the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate Roger and her imprisoned uncle, Lord Asriel. Deceptions and treacheries threaten at every turn, and she is not yet certain how to read the mysterious truth-telling instrument that is her only guide. After escaping from the charming and sinister Mrs. Coulter, she joins a group of "gyptians" in search of their children, who, like Roger, have been spirited away by Mrs. Coulter's henchmen, the Gobblers. Along the way Lyra is guided by friendly witches and attacked by malevolent ones, aided by an armored polar bear and a Texan balloonist, and nearly made a victim of the Gobblers' cruel experiments. As always, Pullman is a master at combining impeccable characterizations and seamless plotting, maintaining a crackling pace to create scene upon scene of almost unbearable tension. This glittering gem will leave readers of all ages eagerly awaiting the next installment of Lyra's adventures. 100,000 first printing; $250,000 ad/promo. Ages 10-up. (Apr.) Copyright 1996 Cahners Business Information.
School Library Journal Reviews
Gr 7 Up A novel set in London and in the Arctic regions of a world that is somewhat like our own. Lyra, apparently an orphan, lives among the scholars at Jordan College, Oxford. She becomes aware of a nefarious plot to steal children and transport them to the far north. As Lyra is drawn deeper and deeper into this mystery, she finds that the children are being made to suffer terribly. What she does not and must not know is that she is the keystone in an ancient prophecy. Her destiny is to save her world and to move on into a parallel universe. She dives headlong into harrowing adventures, totally unaware of her importance. She also discovers the identity of her parents, who are major players in the unfolding drama. In Lyra's world, every human has a daemon, an animal that is sort of an extension of one's soul. This fact is central to the story as the church, the academic world, and the government seek to understand the significance of the phenomenon. Also important, but never fully explained, is a substance called Dust. This is a captivating fantasy, filled with excitement, suspense, and unusual characters. The armored bears are wonderful and more interesting than most of the humans. There is some fine descriptive writing, filled with the kind of details that encourage suspension of disbelief. The story line moves along at a rapid clip, but flags when it delves into philosophical matters. The ending is less than satisfying, but serves as a lead-in to part two of the series. Fantasy lovers will be clamoring for the next installment. Bruce Anne Shook, Mendenhall Middle School, Greensboro, NC School Library Journal Reviews
Voice of Youth Advocates Reviews
In The Golden Compass, Pullman gave us a breathtakingly rich vision of a world shades removed from and more mystical than ours, infused with magic and informed by reason, where everyone has a personal daemon in animal form that is the perfectcomplement of their personality, and to which they are bound with their whole soul. We met Lyra, the impudent, shrewd daughter of the powerful scholar, Lord Asriel. Left to her own wild devices under the benevolent care of elderly professors, shefinds her joy running wild with the Oxford street children. When Lyra foils an attempt to assassinate her dangerous father, events are set in motion that destroy her innocent childhood. A photograph of an alternate world, rumors of mysterious Dust, and the increasing disappearances of children all serve tomove Lyra down the path of a terrible destiny. With Lord Asriel imprisoned, the glamorous Mrs. Coulter and her menacing daemon come to take Lyra from her home. Lyra receives a curious instrument an alethiometer which always tells the truth, if one isable to discern the layered meanings of its pictograms. Frightened when she discovers Mrs. Coulter is not only her mother, but also the leader of the Oblation board those behind the abductions, performing unspeakable experiments, severing childrenfrom their daemons Lyra escapes, determined to rescue her father and a missing friend. She begins a journey to the far North, making strange allies along the way, from the King of the Gyptians to Iorek Byrnison, leader of the great white armoredbears. The conclusion is aching, haunting, and epically beautiful. In The Subtle Knife, Pullman continues Lyra's story, as tensions escalate. Will, a boy from a parallel Oxford, is on a quest to find his own father, who had vanished on a Northern expedition. Fleeing after killing one of the mysterious men whoquestion his mother, Will finds a hole from his modern England into the world of Cittigazze, where adults are prey to soul-eating Spectres, and where people's daemons are on the outsides. There, he meets Lyra, out to revenge the death of her friendand find out more about the elusive Dust. The two join forces and form an uneasy, fierce friendship. Victor in a bloody fight, Will learns that he is destined to be the bearer of the subtle knife, a blade able to cut holes into other worlds. As theskies of Cittigazze fill with the massive movements of angels heading to join Lord Asriel in his epic battle against the Authority, and the evil Mrs. Coulter gets nearer and nearer to Lyra, Will and Lyra are pulled into a growing maelstrom of greatstruggles and betrayals. These first two volumes of His Dark Materials trilogy are, simply, magnificent. Pullman has the power of a master fantasist. He imbues an age-old classical struggle with a new mythic vision, the depth and realization of which are staggering. Hisstyle is tight, compelling, and nearly flawless. Characters quickly become friends, so layered and immediate are they, inspiring the reader to tears of loss or wonder. These two titles stand in equal company with the works of J.R.R. Tolkien and C. S.Lewis. Jennifer Fakolt. [Editor's Note: Slight comfort for readers dying for the sequel during a speech presented at the National Council of Teachers of English conference in Detroit in November 1997, Pullman forecast the release of his trilogy'sconcluding volume in 1998. As of this late March writing, his Knopf publicist reports that he has not yet completed it.] Copyright 1998 Voya Reviews
