The Golden Compass

Pullman, Philip. The Golden Compass. Book 1 of His Dark Materials trilogy). 1995. 399p. ISBN 9780679879244. Available at FIC PUL on the library shelves.

Lyra Belacqua has always been a free spirit. At eleven years old, she rules the children of Jordan College, in Oxford, and her education has been spotty at best. Every human has a daemon, a creature that reflects their innermost self. Human and daemon are never separated and live in a symbiotic relationship.

When Lyra trespasses in the Master’s chambers, she’s only doing it for a lark. But then she secretly witnesses the Master poisoning the cup of Lord Asriel, her uncle who has just returned from an expedition to the north. Seeking more money to fund another expedition, Lord Asriel finds Lyra, who tells him what the Master of Jordan’s College did to the cup. Seeking to raise more money, Lord Asriel downplays the poisoning attempt and presents to the scholars more information about dust and an ethereal city beyond the northern lights, which he suspects is actually in another universe.

At the same time, Gobblers have been kidnapping children for some nefarious purposes. Left behind by her uncle, Lyra is suddenly entrusted to the care of Mrs. Coulter, a charismatic scholar who also seems to be investigating dust. Mrs. Coulter and her golden monkey daemon are in charge of the Ablation Board, an organization within the Church. But when Roger, Lyra’s friend, is kidnapped by the Gobblers, who work for the Ablation Board and Mrs. Coulter, Lyra realizes that the Ablation Board is involved in terrible experiments on these children. With the help of unexpected allies such as witches and armored bears, it is up to Lyra to save the children from the clutches of Mrs. Coulter and her ilk. The secrets she will discover, however, could destroy everything she knows...

The story continues in The Subtle Knife.