Rating: 4/5
Lyra lives in a world mirroring the one as we know it today. There are references to places that do exist—for example Oxford University where Lyra lives for the first part of the book—in it, and people speak English and do normal stuff. However, one major difference is that all humans have creatures called daemons, which are described in the novel as ‘part of your soul’—a piece of you in animal form, that feels the emotions you feel and thinks pretty much the same as you do. Without your daemon, you would feel empty and incomplete.
In Lyra’s world, there is mysterious and puzzling talk of a newly discovered elementary particle: Rusakov Particles, which are known more commonly as Dust. Her uncle—later proved to be her father—has many interesting things to show the Scholars at Oxford, including special photographs that show Dust gathering around adults (but not children who have not yet reached puberty), and an enigmatic city in the sky, only visible through the Northern Lights.
There is also talk of the ‘Gobblers’—a band of unidentified people who have been stealing children all over the country. Although people have fantasised all sorts of descriptions for their leader, the real culprit is Marisa Coulter: a beautiful young woman who will later be proven to be Lyra’s own mother. What the Gobblers do to the children they capture is unknown, but Lyra will soon found out by experience.
This time being the second time that I’ve read this book, I have to say that I enjoyed it a lot more than I did last year. I think I failed to see some of the underlying messages and references a year ago.
*2019 REVIEW*
Lyra Belacqua’s simple, samey life at Oxford’s Jordan College naturally leads her to dreaming of going to the dark, mysterious North with her Uncle Asriel. When the chance finally comes, she leaps at the opportunity, without taking into account the dangerous depths beneath the North’s surface.
I thought this book was a little bit boring at the beginning, when nothing had really started happening, but it was really well-written and had a great plot behind it. Would have given it 3 1/2, but rounded it up to 4 to fit the Goodreads scoring. A big fan of Philip Pullman, but I thought some of his other works were better than this one.