His Dark Materials...and something clever in the title.

This will be reserved for Golden Compass. Reading begins!

-Update-
Halfway through the first volume! I love this book!

Finally a book I can't seem to put down. It's rather unfortunate that I got around to reading it in a rush to catch up with the class, but the story is written clearly enough that I didn't need to do a lot of double-taking.

As discussed in class the week this book was meant for, Pullman wrote the character Lyra like an actual child. She has the same short attention span, same ambiguous morality, and the same sort of quirks any child like her might have had. She has a morbid curiosity as if death doesn't sink in with her {as it doesn't quite do for many children}. She is impatient and like a child, loves to tell stories and make things up to make them sound ten times more interesting. She gets angry and disobeys elders or their rules frequently, but she is ultimately a good girl with good intentions, if not just a little too adventurous. Reading about her and her actions reminds me of how I was like as a kid, though I know for certain I wasn't nearly as energetic or social. I can see how some readers may find her annoying, but to me her unique character and nature make her a well rounded being that I can follow without being thrown some unsuspecting curve about their personality. She's consistent thus far, and the way she handles her situations are much the same. Like any child she gets bored easily and could spend hours trying to figure something out if it comes down to it, as Lyra learned to use the Alethiometer when she was stuck up in her cabin.

The story reminds me a lot of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, only it doesn't start in a familiar world but goes straight into the alternative. For whatever reason, it's easy to accept the norms in Lyra's world, for they make these fantastical things seem normal enough. For instance, and a strong one at that, there are the daemons. If only one or several chose characters had creatures like these, they would be all the more fascinating and peculiar, but because everyone in this world seems to have them and someone who doesn't possess one is more likely to receive a reaction, you begin to grow used to it like the concept of ambaric power being their energy source rather than electricity or oil. Her world, like Tolkiens, becomes one that you wish to learn more of for the sake of catching on to the 'norm' of their universe. The way this book is written, all this is relatively simple to follow. The only thing I have yet to know much about is the Magistrate, but I'm sure that will be touched upon further in the second part of this volume.

All I can add right now is that so far it's a very interesting story, I will continue reading it, and I will likely read through the other two books as well if the story remains just as decent. It never ceases to keep my attention and so far it has my 9.5/10 sort of rating, which is high considering that I never have given anything a 10/10, except for maybe The Lord of the Rings trilogy or Brave New World and 1984.

I'll update this again once I'm through with the story.

-Peace out.