Review: Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

Here you can find more information about the story itself. Now on with the review!

Northern Lights, or also known as The Golden Compass because of the film, is the first in the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman. I picked it up because I really enjoyed watching the film. When I started it a couple of months back, I found that I didn't like Lyra as much as I wanted to. She actually annoyed me so after about 60 pages I put the book down and started reading something else. A couple of days ago I decided to try and read it again and I managed to finish it despite the fact that I'm still not a big fan of Lyra. In the beginning of the book she is just an annoying brat but when the plot takes shape, the emphasis on her rebellious character lessens a bit and made it easier for me to accept her.

The book pulls you straight in. Together with Lyra we hear about something call Dust but it is not entirely clear what exactly it is. We just get enough information to peak our interested and to realise that it might play a very important part in the book. While it is immediately clear that the story takes place in an alternate version of our world, I wasn't quite sure how advanced their technology was. Cars were mentioned, but also Zeppelins and some other advanced sounding technology. Not exactly knowing this, leaves a lot of room for imagination which I enjoyed.

The book is beautifully written and Pullman does a great job with descriptions and setting the mood of scenes. The author knows how much he can can describe without making the passage utterly. The way he describes the northern lights is hereof a good example. He makes it seems as if it the most beautiful thing we can witness on earth without exaggerating. What I disliked about the book was the presence of the omniscient narrator. While he mostly stayed in the background, he dared to come forward and showed us a small glimpse of what was still to come to add suspense. It really annoyed me because I feel that the added suspense is otiose. Luckily it does not happen often.

The best thing about the books are the daemons, an animal that never leaves your side. Every human has them and they represent the human soul. I absolutely love that concept and I would like to have a deamon myself. I think mine might be some kind of bird. What I do wonder is if a daemon can be a large animal as well like a rhino or an elephant. It does not seem every practical to me. If someone has an idea about this, please let me know!

While I could go on quite a while about this book, I will end my review here with giving the book a 3 out of 5.