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published 1995; hardback 1995; paperback 1997, Del Rey
The Golden Compass is suspenseful, action-packed, and full of both beauty and horror. It's stunning. It's magnificent. I'm running out of superlatives, so if you're still with me and not running as fast as you can to the bookstore to get your own copy of The Golden Compass, let's get more in depth.
The setting is much like 19th-century Europe, but slightly skewed: technology is literally worshiped; people have animal familiars called daemons; and scientists are interested in a mysterious subatomic particle known as Dust. When children begin disappearing, it is suspected that they have been taken by a faction interested in studying Dust, which for reasons unknown adheres to adults but not to children. A resourceful child named Lyra Belacqua, whose Uncle Asriel also has been investigating Dust, becomes entangled in the schemes of the Dust hunters and begins to shake things up as only she can.
Lyra, whose personality is a potent blend of Huckleberry Finn and Pippi Longstocking, careens from adventure to adventure guided by the promptings of her alethiometer, the "golden compass" of the book's title. An alethiometer is a truth-sensing device that works something like a tarot deck, if a tarot deck was mechanical and capable of giving specific answers to questions. I have got to get me one of these.
The Dust trail leads to the frozen North, where the Northern Lights are suspected of being the source of Dust. Along the way, Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon outwit captors and pursuers, befriend armored bears, ride in a hot-air balloon, and meet witches. They also discover the secret of Dust and of Lyra's own origin.
I found it refreshing that the main character in The Golden Compass was a child; books in which a child is the main character don't have to be relegated to the children's racks. The startling, cliffhanger ending doesn't diappoint, but leaves the reader hungry for more. In the next book Lyra will be exploring new worlds, and I'll be more than happy to travel with her.
Review by Sara Lipowitz
Reviewed May 8, 1997
ISBN 0-345-41335-0
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