The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
This book is as advertised, a fantasy novel for young adults. It’s set in an alternate universe where England is in a weird mix combining gothic and modern elements, but technologically behind the real world by a few decades. I would not normally read something in this genre but a friend has taken a liking to the HBO/MAX series now playing which combines all three of the books in the trilogy His Dark Materials. We’re watching it for the spectacular CGI and production values but it’s hard to follow at times. I got the book to explain some of the fantasy world and characters better. The book was good for that, but I found it juvenile and not particularly well-written. It reads as though the author just started writing and when he came to a block in the story like an unsolvable peril for the main character, Lyra, he just invents some fantastic character or suspension of the laws of physics – an armored bear, a witch, a companion animal/daemon who can change shape to fight, fly, etc., to get past the jam. Since it’s fantasy, anything goes and nothing makes sense. This book, the first in the series, was made into a movie starring Nicole Kidman but it bombed at the box office, so the trilogy wasn’t completed then. HBO picked up the baton and did the whole trilogy from scratch. The book is harmless enough, an easy read, and I suppose would be okay for a twelve-year-old girl, but I can’t recommend it for adults.