30 Books in 30 Beach Days Day 15: "The Golden Compass"
On the verge of the weekend, I have an exciting suggestion for your beach read: a throwback to the mid-90s, a time before even Harry Potter. This weekend, why not fill your beach bag with Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series?
If you can, for a moment, put aside the atrocity that was The Golden Compass the motion picture, you might recall the pure magic of that first novel in the trilogy. Set in a parallel universe, that first book is the story of Lyra Belacqua, an orphan who is brought up by the masters and staff of a parallel Oxford University, with occasional visits from Lord Asriel, her uncle. Asriel, a brilliant adventurer, is pursuing what he calls “dust,” and he believes that a parallel universe (or multiple universes) can be seen via the northern lights.
The first novel is about Lyra’s journey North to find her Uncle Asriel. Lyra is quickly identified as an unusually gifted individual for her instinctive ability to read an “alethiometer,” a complex truth-telling device.
Filled with magic, human souls that exist externally in speaking-animal form and are called daemons, and abounding adventures, The Golden Compass and its two subsequent sequels are fast-paced, breathtaking reads. But as much as they are about magic, they are also deeply philosophical and religious, and Lyra proves herself exceptional in many ways, particularly in the climactic pages of The Amber Spyglass, the concluding novel in the trilogy.
It’s interesting that complicated moral tales are so often best told via young adult literature. Pullman created an instant classic in this series, not just for its vivid storytelling, but for the lasting impact it has on the reader.
Rating: 5/5
