#10. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
This is actually a re-read. I wanted to revisit the book after seeing the family-friendly film version of Pullman's story, and am glad I did so. As I remembered, the world that Lyra Belacqua lives in is a dark, dark place, filled with violence and gore and wondrous soul-beings called daemons. She eventually finds herself on a mission to deliver the golden compass back to her uncle who has been taken prisoner in the cold, snowy North. A side plot about freeing the children stolen by the Gobblers is also dealt with, and was probably my favorite part of the book. This isn't Harry Potter stuff where adults actually listen to children; Lyra is berated again and again, talked down to, betrayed, you name it. Anyways, a great story with a lot of neat fantastical characters, as well as an elegant mix of science fiction and colleges and gyptians and lions, tigers, and (polar) bears oh my.
I wonder why that heart-eating scene didn't make it into the film. Hmmm...
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2 comments:
I'm so GLAD I read the book before I saw the movie! The daemons are such an intriguing part of the book.
The movie had the look of the daemons, but didn't even brush the surface that was the friendship and utter closeness people are to their animal-souls.
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