This is an interesting story. The movie, "The Golden Compass," came out in December 2007 and is much less nuanced. After reading the story, the movie feels rushed, movie does recreate Pullman's world to good effect. After reading the entire trilogy, I feel this first book is the most enjoyable because it seems most tightly written.

Pullman creates a first-class alternate fantasy universe that both older children and adults should enjoy exploring. This first book is not a total cliffhanger but it does leave much for the next two books to explain. Items of religious controversy mostly come out in the third and concluding book.

Very good series, listed for young adults, but should be enjoyable to many ages.

While I think the book started off slow, I was very pleased to find myself reading the book in a few days, anticipating each turn of the page and the adventure it brought!

Lyra is a girl, but no ordinary girl. Her adventures start at Jordan college when she witnesses something she should have not seen. From that point forward she is in a whirlwind adventure with her daemon, gyptions, witches and an armoured bear.

Children and their daemons are suddenly vanishing. People know the Gobblers are taking them, but are not sure why. When they do find out why they are terrified!

Lyra sets out to save the lost children with help and I will leave off here before I give up too many details.

A great read.

The tale continues with the other books in "His Dark Materials" - the Subtle Knife is Books 2.

Pick it up and sit back and enjoy the ride (on cloud-pine branches if you have them).

The second and third books in the series, more than this book, are written for people whose spirtual journey is not yet over. If you are absolutely sure you have all the answers, then why bother reading anything? In my interpretation, Pullman is not "killing God." In actuality (in a subsequent book in the series), God dies, or rather dissolves, from old age and irrelevancy. But Pullman's God is part of his constructed fantasy world. Some will find that offensive. I didn't; but then my journey is still ongoing.

This is a great first book in the His Dark Dark Materials Trilogy! It is adventerous and full of fantasy and wonderful characters.

I know that people really love this book, but I just couldn't get into it. I didn't like the main character and felt that the author laid out his story in a very roundabout way. I just wasn't inspired to get through this book.

DO NOT BE FOOLED! Our family listened to the audio of The Golden Compass and The Subtle Knife - enjoying the action, while still having an uncomfortable feeling in the gut. When we got to the third book in the trilogy, The Amber Spyglass - we stopped listening. For the Christian - this is NOTHING SHORT OF BLASPHEMY. The entire series is about "killing God" in the author's own words. The third book in the worst - but all are bad....trying to set the trap to ensnare kids into the fantasy world of believing all this stuff. No, the demons, witches, spectors and talking animals didn't freak us out. It was the out-and-out lies of an athiest author that turned us off. So, IF YOU ARE CHRISTIAN....DON'T BOTHER WITH THIS SERIES.

Deals with more issues that might be teenage in nature. Still a very well written book with a fantastic story line.

fun and quick and vivid.

Veru entertaining!

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This was a great book. I actually read the whole series, and I thought it tailed off toward the end but this book was worth it on its own. Emotional, engaging fiction set in a parallel world.

good book. I think it was as good as the movie.

I'm willing to admit that when it comes to books and movies I sometimes "don't get it". I "got it" in this one, but I don't really understand what all the controversy was about. Everyone acted like it was some big deal with all the anti-religion, but I didn't really see that in here at all. It was a "just okay" book. I have the other two to read one day, but they are going down the list a bit. While parts of the book were very fast paced and fun, some of it was just "eh".

With all of the hype surrounding its message, The Golden Compass did not live up to expectations. The writing is mediocre and doesn't give you the opportunity to immerse yourself in the story. For example, recognizing that the book is for young adults, very early in the book, Pullman mentions the Aurora Borealis and gives a definition and description to ensure that the reader understands the reference. However, once the Aurora Borealis is defined, it is not necessary to define it every time it is mentioned. This annoying technique also happens with the panserbjørne, or armored bears. Every time the bears are mentioned, Pullman will call them panserbjørne and then redefine them. This annoying flaw pulls the reader out of the fantasy world that is being created.

In addition to the constant redefinition of words, Pullman also does not satisfactorily bring the book to an end. While the book is the first in a series of three, the ending for this one feels more like an arbitrary plot break rather than a real end to the first third of the story.

Finally, the story is too long considering that there are two more books to read after this one. It's clear what is going to happen in the plot, yet there is so little action and so much repetition that the reader feels like the plot is at a standstill.

Overall, there are a lot of other wonderful fantasy books for both young adults and adults. Read one of them before picking up The Golden Compass.

Fascinating scifi fantasy. Need to get book 2

After hearing and receiving emails regarding this book/movie's anti-Christian contents I decided to read it myself to determine was was causing the hysteria.

This is book 1 of a trilogy. Book 2 is THE SUBTLE KNIFE, which I will review separately.

I did not find THE GOLDEN COMPASS to be anti-Christian. It did, however base a church in the book and that church's followers, on historical activities of the Christian church, in particular the Catholic church of the middle ages. The main character is a young girl that is dropped off at a university by a person she believes is her uncle, but turns out to be her father. She is raised in a haphazard manner by the scholars, but has a good life until children begin disappearing. This is the story of her adventures as she tries to find her best friend, who is one of the children that disappears.

While the story line is interesting, the over all message seems to be that people that should love and care for you will betray you at every turn and that the few good people that do love and care for you will continually be either overcome or out witted by evil people. I also found the main character's pride in being a good liar a problem. As for the part that touches on the the evils of the church and those seeking to overthrow it, by so opposing God, well both groups of people are so horrible that I found the whole book to be depressing. There is no good vs. evil. It seems it is just evil vs. evil.

In addition, most of the book was rather tedious and at times, boring.

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