A review by natasha_saidikowski
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

4.0

This book is as good as I remembered. It ends spectacularly and there’s a lot of excellence in the middle. My big criticism is the amount of exposition, even in dialogue. This book is an origin story and the kicking off point of this trilogy (which in many ways has grown into a saga with The Book of Dust series). As such, it has a lot of groundwork to lay so the audience can understand what comes later. And all of that information is provided as exposition, often in the form of dialogue from various characters, but strictly exposition nonetheless. Oftentimes, we just get blocks of text that could be dialogue or not, with no indication of what the characters are doing as they speak (so presumably just sitting there) or even how they’re speaking (so they just come off as pedantic lecturers). It’s important and interesting information, but it could have been presented in a more interesting way.

If you can slog through that exposition, there’s some pretty exciting stuff, from the battle in Bolvangar to mortal combat in Svalbard. And, of course, the last few pages are extraordinarily exciting as Lyra and Pan head off on their next adventure.

Definitely worth the read. Just be aware that there’s a lot of history and world to establish.