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dejumbi 's review for:
The Golden Compass
by Philip Pullman
fast-paced
Please do not read my garbage reviews. They are just for me to gather my thoughts and remember what I thought about books I read. Not even structured
I definitely liked the Gilden Compass, but I could tell pretty quickly that I wasn't the target audience. I mean it is tagged as "middle grade" so I probably should have known. I still liked it in general.
What did I like?
The world building was cool! I like the concept of humans and their deamons and the bond between them and the conflict presented with the Oblation Board breaking those bonds.
The nature of the church and academia essentially ruling the western world was also interesting.
Trying to pin down what the technological state of the world was was fun. Not quite steampunk, not quite turn-of-the-century. A fun setting.
The progression of Lyra being able to read the alethiometer felt realistic and whimsical.
By far my favorite part of the plot was Lyra's time in Bolvangar. It felt like one of the only times in the book where the mystery was really allowed to breathe before everything is explained by a character. That does happen eventually with Mrs. Coulter, but we get time to explore the mystery, really see things through the eyes of frightened children, feel the sense of conflict and uncertainty.
So what did I not like?
Generally the pacing felt a little too fast, which I chalk up to this being a children's book. Too often we would have massive exposition dumps about the world or a situation from a character instead of proper scenes setting up the world. We definitely have a tell, don't show sort of situation a lot of the time. The most blatant was Lee Scorsby and the witch going on and on about how witch society works while the usual POV character is fast asleep.
Lyra's relationship with some of the other characters seemed to progress way too fast. Especially with Iorek Byrnison the bear. Went from neutral to "I will literally die for you" sort of out of nowhere. The relationship with Farder Corum felt more realistic but even that felt a bit rushed.
The whole third act felt so fast and I had a hard time suspending my disbelief as Lyra tricked the king of the bears, Mrs. Colter's zeppelin tracked the party instantly, Lord Asriel has the most remote luxury house in history (where do his supplies come from??) And the pacing in act 3 is SO fast.
Very minor, but the propensity for characters to almost always be referred to by their first and last name all the time was kinda weird. I don't think it's a world building thing, but maybe it's a kids book thing.
Good, not great. I bet I'd like this way more had I read it as a kid. That's the target audience after all! It was a generally easy read, the prose was still sometimes quite nice, I learned some new vocabulary words, and generally enjoyed my time. I don't think I enjoyed it enough to move on to the next book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, but I'm glad I tried it out!
What did I like?
The world building was cool! I like the concept of humans and their deamons and the bond between them and the conflict presented with the Oblation Board breaking those bonds.
The nature of the church and academia essentially ruling the western world was also interesting.
Trying to pin down what the technological state of the world was was fun. Not quite steampunk, not quite turn-of-the-century. A fun setting.
The progression of Lyra being able to read the alethiometer felt realistic and whimsical.
By far my favorite part of the plot was Lyra's time in Bolvangar. It felt like one of the only times in the book where the mystery was really allowed to breathe before everything is explained by a character. That does happen eventually with Mrs. Coulter, but we get time to explore the mystery, really see things through the eyes of frightened children, feel the sense of conflict and uncertainty.
So what did I not like?
Generally the pacing felt a little too fast, which I chalk up to this being a children's book. Too often we would have massive exposition dumps about the world or a situation from a character instead of proper scenes setting up the world. We definitely have a tell, don't show sort of situation a lot of the time. The most blatant was Lee Scorsby and the witch going on and on about how witch society works while the usual POV character is fast asleep.
Lyra's relationship with some of the other characters seemed to progress way too fast. Especially with Iorek Byrnison the bear. Went from neutral to "I will literally die for you" sort of out of nowhere. The relationship with Farder Corum felt more realistic but even that felt a bit rushed.
The whole third act felt so fast and I had a hard time suspending my disbelief as Lyra tricked the king of the bears, Mrs. Colter's zeppelin tracked the party instantly, Lord Asriel has the most remote luxury house in history (where do his supplies come from??) And the pacing in act 3 is SO fast.
Very minor, but the propensity for characters to almost always be referred to by their first and last name all the time was kinda weird. I don't think it's a world building thing, but maybe it's a kids book thing.
Good, not great. I bet I'd like this way more had I read it as a kid. That's the target audience after all! It was a generally easy read, the prose was still sometimes quite nice, I learned some new vocabulary words, and generally enjoyed my time. I don't think I enjoyed it enough to move on to the next book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, but I'm glad I tried it out!