Well, wow! I can see what all the hub-bub was about! So well written. This novel has a maturity that you don't often find in YA books these days. It presumes a certain level of intellect that is refreshing these days! I loved the various levels of interaction between the characters and felt the story was deftly and masterfully woven. Can't wait to read the next 2! ( )

This is a tough one because I read this book about a year ago, thinking it would be the kind of book I would've loved as a child and being very disappointed with it. Then I re-read it very recently as a refresher as I was about to start the second book in the series. So I have moderated my view somewhat.

The first impressions that stayed with me were - loved the concept of daemons and would have loved to have come up with that one myself; loved Pantalaimon as a character, liked the characters of the gyptians such as Farder Coram, and the aeronaut Lee Scoresby - but wasn't keen on Lyra. I found her very irritating; she was a habitual liar (though I appreciate she later finds that a useful survival skill when up against villains), she somehow magically taught herself to use a very complex instrument that usually needs to be looked up in books to interpret, which was very convenient as it told her all sorts of useful things. Also everyone seemed to love her - such as Iorek Brynison, the king-bear-in-waiting, and Lee and the gyptian woman who hid with her in the cupboard when she was a kid. She seemed a bit too amazingly lucky and always to know what to do, e.g. how to blow up a research base and get a load of scared kids out, how to deal with homicidal bears. I appreciated that the book was well written, that scenes were vivid etc, lots of action too.

Occasionally, things are rather silly - for instance, there's a lot about how Lyra's hair is so distinctive that she can't be seen above deck on the narrow boat, so why don't the gyptians dye it brown? Then two insect thingies attack when she does appear and one gets away and you think it will bring the villains down on them when they get to the ship - but nothing happens. The other insect creature is captured just so Lyra has something handy to help her escape much later in the story. So there are some narrative weaknesses. And I found there were just too many impossible things, piled on one and another till it seemed ridiculous.

On re-reading, I'm giving the book an additional star than I expected to originally, because it is well written and quite a good pageturner, although the omniscient narrator and attendant head-hopping within scenes can be offputting. I still find there are too many concepts - Pullman put the whole kitchen sink in as well as everything else. Parallel worlds, Dust, daemons, more or less immortal witches, talking bears, and lots lots more. One's willing suspension of disbelief becomes rather fatigued. And as I'm discovering, this house of cards doesn't hold up very well when it comes to the second book.
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I listened to the full cast audio, which was fantastic. Complicated, intellectual, good fantasy. ( )

I only occasionally venture into "Young Adult" books, as I dislike books that come across as patronising towards their readership, treating the child as stupid or naive ("The Secret Garden" for instance barely scrapes by when re-read as an adult, and dont get me on The Narnia books!).[return][return]This however, was a reasonable story, reasonably written. I can appreciate why it has become a modern favourite, set in an alternate version of Earth where children are heroes, and can be captured and killed (by losing their daemons), where armoured bears can talk and witches fly through the skies to war with each other. ( )

Wow. Just wow. Beautiful and noble and harsh, best young adult book I can remember. Comparisons to Lion Witch and Wardrobe, that Tesseract series, etc. only better. ( )