His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book 1)

Philip Pullman

Nov 2001 · Knopf Books for Young Readers

About this ebook

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “MARVELOUS.”—The New Yorker • An Entertainment Weekly All-Time Greatest Novel • A Newsweek Top 100 Book of All Time • Winner of the Carnegie Medal • The Inspiration for the HBO Original Series His Dark Materials

DON’T MISS THE EPIC FINALE TO LYRA’S STORY: THE ROSE FIELD, AVAILABLE NOW!

Discover the modern fantasy classic that kicked off the epic trilogies His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust—a world where humans have animal familiars and parallel universes are within reach.

“Pullman is quite possibly a genius.”—Newsweek

A war is brewing in Lyra’s world between those who would keep people in ignorance and those willing to fight for freedom. Lyra is thrust into the middle of the conflict when her uncle Asriel comes to Oxford, fomenting rebellion, and when her best friend, Roger, suddenly disappears.

Lyra learns that Roger was kidnapped by a shadowy organization that is rumored to experiment on children. To find him, she will travel to the cold, far North, where armored bears and witch clans rule—and where Asriel is attempting to build a bridge to a parallel world.

What Lyra doesn’t know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other—and that her actions will have consequences not just in her world, but in all the worlds beyond.

Look for the modern fantasy classics of HIS DARK MATERIALS:
The Golden Compass • The Subtle Knife • The Amber Spyglass

And Lyra’s adventures continue in THE BOOK OF DUST:
La Belle Sauvage • The Secret Commonwealth • The Rose Field

Ratings and reviews

A great book but I honestly wouldn't consider this a children's book. Pullman has weaved a amazing story with magic, science, and religion into a beautiful tapestry. I have read that Pullman is a atheist and after reading this series you can clearly see that. But a wonderful story never the less. I have read this series multiple times and the golden compass is still my favorite.

Mi interés por esta trilogía se debió primeramente a la película y debo decir que en muchos sentidos es mejor el libro, sin embargo, la historia de este primer todo es una introducción al universo y debo decir que es muy difícil mantener el interés por un mundo que aún desconoces. Pero el leer este primer capítulo de la trilogía valdrá la pena al conocer esta maravillosa historia que sólo alguien como Phillip Pullman puede crear.

I'm more so giving this book a 2.5 on the star scale, only because this entire book felt more methodical and strategic of a read rather than a truly enjoyable work of storytelling. I had to force myself to finish it, and I did, but it wasn't without tedium.

About the author

Philip Pullman is one of the most acclaimed writers working today. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass), which has been named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly. He is also the author of another trilogy set in the same world, The Book of Dust (La Belle Sauvage, The Secret Commonwealth, and The Rose Field) as well as numerous other much-loved novels, a collection of fairy tales, and a volume of essays and speeches on writing. He has won many distinguished prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread (now Costa) Award, Parents’ Choice Gold Awards, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Pullman was knighted for services to literature in the New Years Honours 2019. He lives in Oxford, England.