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Northern Lights by Philip Pullman
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Northern Lights (original 1995; edition 1995)

by Philip Pullman

Series: His Dark Materials (1)

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
35,98874066 (4.07)2 / 942
Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.
Member:mishacollins
Title:Northern Lights
Authors:Philip Pullman
Info:Scholastic Trade (1995), Edition: Eleventh impression, Hardcover, 416 pages
Collections:Your library
Rating:
Tags:None

Work Information

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman (1995)

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1990s (1)
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» See also 942 mentions

English (707)  Danish (6)  Spanish (5)  German (4)  Italian (3)  French (3)  Finnish (2)  Dutch (1)  Portuguese (Portugal) (1)  Portuguese (1)  Swedish (1)  All languages (734)
Showing 1-5 of 707 (next | show all)
This series is incredible and it is a crying shame that the religious right shut down the movie series productions. ( )
  BethOwl | Jan 24, 2024 |

I don't understand the fuss. The writing style is slow and convoluted, jumps around, and I gave up after a few chapters. ( )
  AnneMarieMcD | Jan 16, 2024 |
The acting for the audiobook was amazing! It had a full cast, and the narration (parts without dialogue) was done by the author himself. The book was just as good as it was the first time I read it. ( )
  Dances_with_Words | Jan 6, 2024 |
It's not my favorite fantasy series, but it's pretty engrossing. The biggest surprise for me was Pullman actually sort of rewriting parts of the Bible to fit his fictional world. That's pretty heavy for a kid's book and bound to confuse (or maybe even upset) young readers who've been raised Christian. Or, you know, their parents. ( )
  LibrarianDest | Jan 3, 2024 |
Just listened to the audio version of this after having read it many years ago in high school. They got quite a few different voice actors and it was definitely a good listen. The story held up, though I was also nostalgic so my standards might not be the same as for reading a book for the first time. ( )
  stardustwisdom | Dec 31, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 707 (next | show all)
Pullman's prose is quite lovely and he's obviously put a lot of consideration into his setting and background, the fascinating history of this alternate world and the various creatures populating it. But with under-realized characters to carry the story, even if he had taken us to the end of the plot, we would still be left with an incomplete book.
added by vibesandall | editFantasy & Science Fiction, Charles de Lint (1, 1997)
 
The Golden Compass doesn't quite achieve the majestic poetry of Tolkien's powerful sagas, or the sinewy gravity of Ursula K. Le Guin's Wizard of Earthsea, or the wit of Russell Hoban's fable The Mouse and His Child. But it is still very grand indeed. There is scene after scene of power and beauty (.....) The Golden Compass is long, but it is told simply and draws us on, as one crisis blossoms out of another
added by vibesandall | editThe NY Times Book Review, Jane Langton
 
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.
 

» Add other authors (10 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Pullman, Philipprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Astrologo, MarinaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bailey, PeterIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Barrett, SeanNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Baylay, KateCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Bützow, HeleneTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Beck, IanIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Beck, Rufussecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Berdage, RoserTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Blackwell, DouglasNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Borbás, Máriasecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Brooks, TerryIntroductionsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Degas, RupertNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Dowling, AlisonNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Hagon, GarrickNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Nielsen, CliffCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
O'Connor, JohnNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rohmann, EricCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Rooijen, Quirijn denEditorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sabino, ElianaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sahlin, OlleTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Sheridan, SusanNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Shilling, JillNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Ströle, WolfgangÜbersetzersecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Targo, LindaToimetaja.secondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Thorne, StephenNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Thorne, StephenNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Torrescasana, AlbertTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Tulinius, Gretesecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Tutino, AlfredoTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Williams, StuartCover artistsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wormell, ChrisIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Wyatt, JoannaNarratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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Epigraph
Into this wild abyss,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave,
Of neither sea, not shore, nor air, nor fire,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight,
Unless the almighty maker them ordain,
His dark materials to create more worlds,
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while,
Pondering his voyage...


     — John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II
Dedication
First words
Lyra and her dæmon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen.
Quotations
We are all subject to the fates. But we must all act as if we are not...or die of despair.
...this was in the seventeenth century.  Symbols and emblems were everywhere. Buildings and pictures were designed to be read like books.  Everything stood for something else.; if you had the right dictionary you could read Nature itself.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Originally published as Northern lights in the UK and in the USA as The golden compass (from a title submitted to the publisher). Translations into other languages have used both, including Het noorderlicht (Dutch), La bussola d'oro (Italian) and Der goldene Kompass (German).
This is the record for the unabridged book and associated unabridged audio-books. Other versions, including abridgements, the BBC radio drama (2003), the movie (2007), the TV series (2019), each have their own records. Please distinguish between them.
Publisher's editors
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Canonical LCC

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (1)

Accompanied by her daemon, Lyra Belacqua sets out to prevent her best friend and other kidnapped children from becoming the subject of gruesome experiments in the Far North.

No library descriptions found.

Book description
In a universe somewhat like our own, children are beginning to disappear from cities around England. For Lyra Belacqua, a half-wild orphan girl living at Jordan College, Oxford, the kidnappings are just another excuse for games, battles and tall stories - until her best friend Roger is reported missing. Vowing to rescue him, Lyra embarks upon a journey to the savage North, where physicists and theologians alike are conducting controversial research into the nature of something known only as 'Dust'. Apart from her friends the gyptians, her only guide is a curious golden instrument called an alethiometer. If she is to survive her ordeal, she will have to learn to interpret its cryptic and peculiar messages. 432
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Average: (4.07)
0.5 13
1 156
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