(spoilers)
Imagine our world is connected to several others, all by these small, magical, electromagnetic fragments called “dust.” Some of these worlds are like ours where people bare their soul inside their bodies, while other worlds are like Lyra’s. In Lyra’s world, your soul is compacted into an animal companion at your side who can share your thoughts, comforts you, and is always there for conversation. In Lyra’s world, witches roam the air, and armored-bears guard the icy depths of Svalbar ruled by their beloved king.

Lyra is a young girl with an ermine demon named Pan. They live in the Jordan College of Oxford with the company of the kitchen servant and best friend, Roger. One day, Roger is nowhere to be found. Lyra finally realizes he has been taken by the mischievous Gobblers! The Gobblers are the general obligation board where a group of people steal children of the poor, or orphans. I was extremely thrilled, and sad when I found out Roger had been taken. I didn’t know what these Gobblers did. Is Roger alive, or dead? The anticipation had me on the edge of my seat! Of course, Lyra goes after him immediately.

Lyra sets off on her journey with the help of her gypsy friends, and meets Iorek. Iorek is an armored bear, and Lyra begs him to join them on their journey after helping him find his armor. Lyra and Iorek end up in a small town on the middle of a glacier after she has a bed feeling about this place. She finds herself walking into a small fishing hut to find a young boy frightened, and alone. After a minute she realizes this boy’s daemon is missing! She is in utter shock (as was I) to find her just gone! I had become so used to these characters always having their daemons around. In this moment I realized what the Gobblers were doing to these poor children! My heart skipped a beat. The poor boy died soon after Lyra found him.

On her way back to the boat Lyra gets captured by the Eskimos working in cahoots with the Gobblers. I didn’t know what would happen next! Then they take her to the experimental facility ran by the magisterium at Bolvanger. A giant metal building in the middle of the artic, lined with a large barbed wire fence. This facility is used to find out how to cut children’s daemons away as they believe daemons are the root of all evil. I was devastated when Lyra arrived here, but I knew she would find a way to escape!

After Lyra's daring escape she becomes captured, yet again by the ice bears of Svalbar. I couldn’t believe this was happening again! Svalbar is much like what we would think as the artic. It’s freezing cold, and could only sustain the life or artic bears. The king of the bears (Iofur Rankinson) takes Lyra prisoner. Lucky for Lyra, she’s a very smart, tricky young girl who manages to deceive Iofur to fight Iorek in a one on one dual. After what seems like an eternity Iorek wins the dual and becomes the rightful ruler of the bears.




The amazing conclusion to this novel leaves you in a complete shock. After Iorek takes Lyra to the home of her uncle, Lyra finds out he is really her father. Lord Asriel (her father) tells Lyra, and Roger of the mystery of dust, and the connection it bares of the worlds. The next morning Lyra wakes up alone in the cabin, and runs out the door looking for her beloved Roger. After several minutes of running she finds her uncle, holding Rogers dead body, and looking up at a gaping hole in the sky. Lyra’s father had made a bridge to another world.
The golden compass was one of my favorite books of all time. Pullman’s technique of writing in this book shows his great intelligence throughout. His intellectual style of writing really appealed to me as the reader. This book wasn’t written at all like any books I have previously read. That is probably the reason why it appeals to so many different people. The audience of this book could range from a 10-year-old picking a fifth grade independent reading book, to a fifty-year-old women just looking for a good read. It has something that appeals to everyone like his fantastic style of writing, his twist on a fantasy-adventure novel, or the amazing (yet interesting) places he makes the setting. I believe this book was a great success. It won the annual Carnegie Medal for British children's books, and the annual Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize. It also became a movie in the mid 2000’s. Overall, I give this book five stars, and I do wish more people would read it!
If I had to connect a symbol to something in this book, I would have to pick the character of Lyra Belacqua to a scorpion. Lyra is a young girl who is the main character in this trilogy. She is a very smart, and cunning young girl, but she can be very ignorant to her surroundings. Lyra is easy to get along with, and has a very sweet personality. However, if you happen to get on her bad side, her wrath is that of a poisonous scorpion.

A couple of the major themes in this book would be courage, and love. Lyra shows her amazing courage numerous times throughout this novel. Her courage throught the novel is impeccable. She sets out to save her best friend, she deceives the king of the armored bears, and she does all of these things practically alone. Lyra knows these ideas of hers are very dangerous, but she does them anyway for the safety of the world’s children. Why does Lyra do all of these things to begin with? That would be because of love. Her love for Roger is so great it could conquer all. Also, her love for Pan is shown throughout, as he is the only one truly there for her. The love of best friends is a different type of love. One could only know if they experienced it. Having a best friend that I deeply care about it really helped me connect to Lyra as a character.