The Golden Compass — A Book Review of His Dark Materials, Volume One
Tonight, the new HBO series His Dark Materials begins. In preparation for the show, I read the first book in Philip Pullman’s trilogy: The Golden Compass. If ever a modern fantasy tale deserved to be considered a “modern classic,” this 1995 novel should don the prestigious title.
In the classic Nintendo game, Super Mario Kart, the hands-down best race you can run is Rainbow Road. This fact is uncontested. Don’t even try to fight me on this one. Part (but not all) of the race’s glory stems from the hypnotic, multi-tiered, transparent, multicolored particles that make up its non-gravel sheen. When one is traveling on a rainbow, one expects to be mesmerized. In this regard, Nintendo has always firmly held the market on other-worldly, superhighway dazzle. Upon reading The Golden Compass, the first book of the Philip Pullman trilogy (the compilation I’m reading is called an omnibus), I am stunned into submission, realizing there may be a new rainbow road in the running.
I’ll leave it at that, for now. I don’t want to spoil anything (more than I already have). Rather, if you’ll indulge me, I will further express my burgeoning, unexpected love for this young adult novel.
Lyrics and Language: The Gold In The Golden Compass
I love fantasy. When done right, a good fantasy novel can draw you in quick by setting up other worlds with seamless precision. It’s not an easy thing to do. Not at all.
The world in which Lyra lives is an alternate universe to our own. This information is delved out to us in expert fashion amidst the careful world-building and character studies Pullman pulls off. Lyra herself plays the part of the tried and true teenaged novice, learning of some greater plot, in real time, with us. At times, it seems as if this well-designed plot device overstays its welcome. I found myself wanting for Lyra to be more in the know on more than one occasion. Overall though, it works wonders on driving the story forward — from one sticky situation to the next.
In between the lines where Lyra’s nail biting adventures exist, there are brilliant bursts of poetry.
Great swathes of incandescence trembled and parted like angels’ wings beating; cascades of luminescent glory tumbled down invisible crabs to lie in swirling pools or hang like vast waterfalls.
I'm there.
The Aurora, aptly named in Lyra’s world, is our very same aurora borealis — the closest thing we’ve got to a real life Rainbow Road. It is discussed at length and becomes an integral plot point that culminates in a well-earned cliffhanging payoff imbued with a beatific essence that could make any Renaissance painter blush.
I’m so there.
Driven By Characters:
Lyra Belacqua, Mrs. Coulter, and Iorek Byrnison
Though clearly a coming-of-age McGuffin, here in Book 1, Lyra Belacqua is growing quickly into her own. She (and every human in this world) have their own, personal daemons. These are mythical (to us, I suppose) creatures who hang out within a certain radius of their humans. They can take any form they like, whether it be bird, dog, python, or other. They may shift often or infrequently but these daemons all have one thing in common: they are tethered and bound to their humans. The most horrific thing a person can imagine is to lose their daemon to death. In fact, when one does, the other often follows right behind.
Lyra’s daemon Pantalaimon is considerate, easily lovable, and smart. He’s good at spying and helps Lyra discover new and interesting things about herself and the people who surround her. Without him, well, perish the thought.
The symbiotic relationship is set, almost immediately, to show the importance of Lyra’s dependency. Always there for her, Pantalaimon is Lyra’s one and only. It makes for a truly terrifying scene later in the book. It’s one I will not revisit here so as not to spoil or get my blood pressure boiling again. I’ll just say that it’s a scene I had to read through closed eyes, for fear of what might happen.
Say no more and move on.
The first mention of “Little Tony Makarios” being taken and shipped away by a “kind lady” in furs was disturbing enough. Come to learn she’s kidnapped and hoodwinked lots of kids and, as a parent, that gives me pause. Reeking of the mystery of the Pied Piper, I was happy when Pullman referenced the classic tale in a roundabout way. He mentioned that the lady’s legend grows; sometimes she is known as a beautiful lady and sometimes as a “youth who laughed and sang to his victims so that they followed him like sheep.” These kind of real world mythologies make The Golden Compass seem all the more like it could be an ancient story, built on legends between two plains.
The kind lady, we learn soon enough, is Mrs. Coulter, one of the villains of the novel. When Lyra meets her at first, she doesn’t know who she’s sparring with. This might be my only minor beef with the book. Any time Lyra gets thrown into a new situation, her captors or cohorts are at first nice and helpful and Lyra falls right into their spell. It doesn’t take her long to decide their true nature. But of course, she does have that golden compass to guide her. Kind of a cheat. But it’s also cool as hell.
Iorek Byrnison! What can one say about Iorek Byrnison? He’s a character I’ve literally never seen the likes of before. The great white polar bear in armor is about as dangerous as a … well there is no comparison, is there? Maybe Chewbacca, except with a better grasp of speaking the Queen’s English. When unleashed, Iorek can rip the ground out of a countryside or the beating heart from a foe:
Iron clashed iron, teeth crashed on teeth, breath roared harshly, feet thundered on the hard-packed ground. The snow around was splashed with red and trodden down for yards into a crimson mud.
This snippet of the battle of bears is just a hint at Iorek Byrnison’s fury. It is a thing to behold in full, just as is his sweet devotion to Lyra, due to, well, circumstances.
What follows the ferocious fight is a gruesome scene that has surely titillated many a bloodthirsty reader since its first publication. I did pause to wonder if it, and a few other shocking scenes, might be too much for the intended target audience. But then I recalled shocking aspects of The Hunger Games and horrifying body dismantling in Neal Shusterman’s Unwind Dystology; these extreme examples reignited my allowance for the quantity and quality of mature themes and literary gore that eager, youthful audiences are presented with these days. Besides, there’s so much worse to be absorbed on television, YouTube, etc. forever.
His Dark Materials - The HBO Series
I hope the HBO series lives up to my newfound expectations. This was a book I’ve always had my sights on but never found reason enough (or time) to dive into. Sometimes, the promise of a blockbuster series or movie can drive lazy readers toward the source material. I’m not ashamed to call myself one of them.
With Lin-Manuel Miranda playing Lee Scoresby, an excitable man with a hot air balloon, my hopes are well set. As promising as that is, Scoresby (as far as I can tell from the first book) is but a minor character role.
The life of the series will ride, live, and/or die on the shoulders of Dafne Keen, who plays Lyra. This is her story and everything in it surrounds her and/or directly affects her. She can make or break the series for me and many viewers, and probably in the first hour.
What would be ideal (for me), would be if Season One covered The Golden Compass from start to finish, Season Two picked up exactly where The Subtle Knife (Book Two) begins, and Season Three covers The Amber Spyglass. Then end the series! Television needs to be more succinct, don’t you think? Treat the literary source material right and let it be.
His Dark Materials Show Reviews Forthcoming?
I’m not sure. Maybe I’ll be back to discuss how I think the HBO series is doing as it pertains to the novel about halfway through the season. Or maybe I’ll wait til it’s done. Or maybe you’ll never hear from me about it again. How’s that for an exciting cliffhanger?
Read the novel. Watch the show. Eat your vegetables. Carry on.
His Dark Materials begins tonight on HBO. New episodes air every Monday at 9:00 p.m.
