Why The Golden Compass Is a Must-Read Fantasy Novel

Before I ever fell in love with fantasy novels, I read mystery novels and mostly thrillers. But after reading The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman, I knew I had to read more fantasy novels and thus started my love for this amazing genre. And today, I will be revisiting and writing a book review for one of my favorite fantasy novels ever written.

The Golden Compass Summary

Lyra is an 11-year old girl that lives at Oxford College with her dæmon, Pan. She always gets into trouble and the novel starts off with her sneaking into the Retiring Room and ends up seeing the master poison a wine intented for her uncle Lord Asriel. Lyra warns him and he tells her to watch as he presents his finding about the northern lights to the scholars attending the presentation.

After this Lyra resumes her regular adventures but things change when the Gobblers kidnap Lyra’s best friend Roger and a gorgeous woman named Mrs. Coulter takes Lyra with her to educate her and eventually take her north. Before leaving, the master gives Lyra a device called an alethiometer and to keep it a secret from Mrs. Coutler.

With Mrs Coutler, Lyra learns how to become a women and how to deal with all sorts of people. But a party thrown by Mrs. Coutler reveals her secrets to Lyra and she runs away and is eventually taken up by a bunch of gypsies who must decide what to do next and how Lyra is involved. With her new friends, Lyra must head north and rescue Roger and all of the other kids and learn what Dust is and what the Gobblers are after before it is too late.

The Golden Compass Thoughts and Facts

This is my second time reading this novel and it has been enough time that I don’t remember most of the plot twists. And even after all this time and years older, the novel holds up really well. Pullman has said that he didn’t have an audience in mind when writing this and that might be a reason why. The novel touches on sorts of subjects such as physics, philosophy, and theology.

I was surprised to learn that the novel was called Northern Lights and for North America, they renamed the books to The Golden Compass. This explains why Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone by J.K. Rowling also changed its name and I am glad this trend is over.

The original name of the series was going to be The Golden Compass insteead of His Dark Materials. I think Pullman wanted to use this title and chose it for the North American version. Both titles are from 17th-century poet John Milton’s poem Paradise Lost.

With themes of religion, many people have compared His Dark Materials to The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis. Funnily enough, Pullman despises that series.

In response to a question, Pullman told an audience that he first read Lewis’ books as a teacher and said “I realised that what he was up to was propaganda in the cause of the religion he believed in. It is monumentally disparaging of girls and women. It is blatantly racist. One girl was sent to hell because she was getting interested in clothes and boys.”

Those comments by Pullman’s led to a controversy but have largely been forgotten over time. The Chronicles of Narnia do have a lot of religious symbolism and Pullman’s novels critique and question the idea of original sin. As you can imagine, he faced a lot of opposition from Christian groups but that didn;t stop his novels from being successful.

In 1995, His Dark Materials won the Carnegie Medal for children’s fiction in the UK. And in a 2007 online poll, the novel was voted as the best Carnegie Medal winner in the 70-year history of the award,the Carnegie of Carnegies.

That name is horrible but ignoring that, this is an incredible achievement. In 2001, The Amber Spyglass went on to win the Whitbread Book of the Year award, making it the first time that a children’s book won the award.

Conclusion

You know a book is amazing when you devour it the second time around. Revisiting Lyra and the amazing world that Pullman creates in The Golden Compass was fun and helped me break out of my reading slump.

Novels like this are great reminders why I enjoy reading and I can’t wait to read the rest of the series and even give the spinoff books a try. Until next time, happy reading!

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