Northern Lights (His Dark Materials, #1)

by Philip Pullman

[zarahoffman]

Lyra Belaqua is curious, and brave, and defiant. Bored with her classes at Jordan College, Lyra sneaks into the Board Room and hides in the closet to watch her uncle, Lord Asriel's, presentation where she learns about a strange substance named Dust.


Lyra's World
Lyra doesn't live in our world. She lives in a parallel universe. According to Lord Asriel, all parallel universes coexist and are connected by the Dust in the Northern Lights (The Golden Compass's original title).
And in Lyra's world the totalitarian organization called the Magisterium rules with an iron fist, eradicating any "traitorous" thoughts.
Creatures
In Lyra's world, people have daemons: animals who represent human souls in an exterior form. Holding a person's daemon affects the human and vice versa. A child's daemon can shapeshift, but starting in puberty, it begins to "settle" into it's adult form, from which it cannot change.
There are also panserbjørn or "armored bears" who wear their souls in the armor they make from Sky Iron. On her adventure, Lyra meets one named Iorek Byrnison under strange circumstances.
Lyra also encounters the witches of the North on her adventure, including the leader, Serafina Pekkala. Witches, like normal humans have daemons, but they can be separated by large distances unlike humans who can't stray more than a few feet from their daemons.
The Alethiometer (Golden Compass)
The Alethiometer is a "truth measure" and operates on the mystical Dust. By asking a question in your mind and moving the three red needles to three corresponding images on the rim, the reader will receive an answer when the blue needle points to three other symbols. Very few people can read the se Golden Compasses.
Many of the Alethiometers have been destroyed by the Magisterium because they interfered with their rule. Lyra, however, is one of the remaining few who can read one.
Style
Philip Pullman creates an amazingly rich world populated with majestic creatures and minute details that bring Lyra's world to life. The first few chapters are a little slow and read almost like a textbook that you would find at Lyra's Jordan College, but the action begins very quickly–and once it does, you can't put the book down.
Movie
The 2007 movie directed by Chris Weitz starring Dakota Blue Richards (Lyra), Daniel Craig, Nicole Kidman, and other does not deserve the bad reputation it's been given. Illustrated and acted very faithfully to the books (in my opinion), I would definitely watch the movie after you've read the book. In the movie, Serafina Pekkala (played by Eva Green) serves as a sort of omniscient narrator.