THE GOLDEN COMPASS

ALFRED A. KNOPF/Random House Children’s Books
AUTHOR: Philip Pullman
ISBN: 0-375-82345-X; trade paperback
466 pp. $11.95

Once upon a time, for a little while before J.K. Rowling and her boy wizard took hold of the publishing world, many considered it the best juvenile fantasy of the last quarter of the 20th century.  But The Golden Compass is not Harry Potter.  Part of the His Dark Materials trilogy by British author Philip Pullman, The Golden Compass (entitled Northern Lights in the UK) is not merely a tale of children engaged in an epic battle of good versus evil.  The Golden Compass is also a world where children must face life as it is without the shields of ignorance and innocence to protect them.

The Golden Compass is set on a world like our own, with some similarities and some definite differences (for instance, the Protestant Reformation never happened and technological level seems to be steampunk) and resembles our own 19th century.  The center of the story is an 11-year-old girl named Lyra Belacqua.  She is an orphan who lives at Jordan College in London (a rival of sorts of Oxford), where she is under the care of the professors there and where she spends her days avoiding her education and playing with the children of lower rung staff members.  Like most humans in this world, Lyra has a daemon, which is the physical manifestation of her soul.  Her daemon, named Pantalaimon, takes the form of an animal, but is a shape-shifter and has a separate identity from Lyra, although “Pan” (for short) is an integral part of her person.

Lyra’s life takes a sudden turn from idleness to adventure when her uncle, Lord Asriel, comes to visit Jordan College.  It is a momentous visit for several reasons – one of them being that while hiding Lyra discovers an attempt to poison her uncle.  When she reveals the plot to Lord Asriel, he takes her somewhat into his own confidence and that spurs Lyra’s desire to follow him back to his adventures in the frozen north, including the Arctic.

Although Lyra doesn’t get to accompany Lord Asriel, she finds herself involved in many intrigues.  She discovers that a much-whispered-about mysterious group, called the “Gobblers,” is stealing children.  After Lord Asriel’s visit, Lyra also ends up leaving Jordan College, although reluctantly, where she takes up residence in a posh London apartment with the grandly elegant and majestically imperious Mrs. Coulter.  Lyra soon finds cause to escape from Mrs. Coulter and that leads her to a band of English boat gypsies – the gyptians.  Sensing that she is a special child, the gyptians take Lyra on their journey north to the reputed base of the Gobblers to retrieve stolen gyptian children.  The Gobblers have also apparently stolen Lyra’s playmate, Roger Parslow.

With a mysterious device – the alethiometer – in hand, Lyra hopes to rescue Roger and also Lord Asriel, who was imprisoned up north after he left Jordan College.  But Lyra is unwittingly rushing into committing a great betrayal and also discovering who she really is.

THE LOWDOWN:  The Golden Compass is a high-minded literary event.  The plot and narrative are certainly shaped in the form of escapist, pot-boiler fiction defined by its thrilling pace and grand events.  The backdrop, however, is an idea that is both well-designed and challenging when placed in the context of juvenile fiction – that even a child should be free to make her own mistakes without outside forces (physical and spiritual) trying to protect her from consequences.

Most of the obstacles that Lyra faces involve various forces trying to either control or suppress her for their own ends and destroy her if she will not be their pawn.  What is both impressive and peculiar about both Lyra and The Golden Compass is that the lead character is so self-assured.  Lyra’s journey is not one about learning to believe in herself (which she already does), so much as it is embracing her right to learn and to experience without someone trying to protect her from learning.

So while The Golden Compass provides an exotic setting for a richly intricate, breath-taking adventure, which author Philip Pullman presents in elegant, glittering prose, The Golden Compass is also a shining ode to free will.

POSSIBLE AUDIENCE:  The Golden Compass is an essential work of juvenile fantasy fiction, and its literary pedigree makes it more than worthy of adult attention.

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