His Dark Materials: The Golden Compass (Book 1) - by Philip Pullman (Hardcover)

About the Book

Pullman introduces readers to a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, of Redwall, wherein lives a half-wild, half-civilized girl named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars of Jordan College is about the shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors.

Book Synopsis

The modern fantasy classic that Entertainment Weekly named an "All-Time Greatest Novel" and Newsweek hailed as a "Top 100 Book of All Time." Philip Pullman takes readers to a world where humans have animal familiars and where parallel universes are within reach.

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal--including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.

Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want.

But what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other...

A masterwork of storytelling and suspense, Philip Pullman's award-winning The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials series, which continues with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

A #1 New York Times Bestseller
Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction
Published in 40 Countries

"Arguably the best juvenile fantasy novel of the past twenty years." --The Washington Post

"Very grand indeed." --The New York Times

"Pullman is quite possibly a genius." --Newsweek

Don't miss Philip Pullman's epic new trilogy set in the world of His Dark Materials!
** THE BOOK OF DUST **
La Belle Sauvage
The Secret Commonwealth

Review Quotes

"Extraordinary storytelling at its very best." --The Detroit Free Press

"Superb . . . all-stops-out thrilling." --The Washington Post

"Very grand indeed." --The New York Times

"Powerful [...] a fantasy adventure that sparkles with childlike wonder." --The Boston Sunday Globe

"Marvelous [...] the writing is elegant and challenging." --The New Yorker

"Arguably the best juvenile fantasy novel of the past twenty years [...] If [The Subtle Knife] is as good as The Golden Compass, we'll be two thirds of the way to the completion of a modern fantasy classic."
--The Washington Post Book World

"Pullman is quite possibly a genius...using the lineaments of fantasy to tell the truth about the universal experience of growing up." --Newsweek

"Masterful storytelling [...] with a cast of instantly beguiling characters." --The Dallas Morning News

"The most magnificent fantasy series since Lord of the Rings." --The Oregonian

"Pullman has created the last great fantasy masterpiece of the twentieth century. An astounding achievement." --The Cincinnati Enquirer

"Once in a lifetime a children's author emerges who is so extraordinary that the imagination of generations is altered. Lewis Carroll, E. Nesbit, C.S. Lewis, and Tolkien were all of this cast. So, too, is Philip Pullman, whose Dark Materials trilogy will be devoured by anyone between eight and eighty. The most ambitious work since The Lord of the Rings, it is as intellectually thrilling as it is magnificently written." -- New Statesman

"Thrillingly paced and exotic [...] breathtaking." -- Columbus Dispatch

"[...] a rare few have minds capacious enough to engage in vast cosmos-making, imagining realms and inventing universes. I am thinking of Dante and Milton and Blake. We may now add Philip Pullman."
--Parents Choice (online)

"The Golden Compass is one of the best fantasy/adventure stories that I have read in years. This is a book no one should miss." --Terry Brooks, author of The Sword of Shannara

"As always, Pullman is a master at combining impeccable characterizations and seamless plotting, maintaining a crackling pace to create scene upon scene of almost unbearable tension. This glittering gem will leave readers of all ages eagerly awaiting the next installment of Lyra's adventures."
--Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

"This first fantastic installment of the His Dark Materials trilogy propels readers along with horror and high adventure, a shattering tale that begins with a promise and delivers an entire universe." - Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

"This first fantastic installment propels readers along with horror and high adventure [...] A shattering tale that begins with a promise and delivers an entire universe." --Kirkus Reviews, Starred

"The characters of Lord Asriel, Mrs. Coutler, and Iorek Byrnison and the cold and beautiful Northern setting are captivating; the constantly twisting plot and escalating suspense are riveting; and Lyra and Pantalaimon are among the gutsiest and wiliest of adventurers. Touching, exciting, and mysterious by turns, this is a splendid work." --The Horn Book Magazine, Starred

"Glorious. And what an ending -- simply operatic." --School Library Journal, Top 100 Children's Novels (#28)

"This is a captivating fantasy, filled with excitement, suspense, and unusual characters." --School Library Journal

"A totally involving, intricately plotted fantasy that will leave readers clamoring for the sequels."
--Booklist, Starred review

"Glorious. . . . The Golden Compass is one of those lyrical suspensions like Alice in Wonderland and The Lord of the Rings that crosses all age lines and intertwines mythologies and legends with seamless beauty." --BookPage

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.