A review by yozhik
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

adventurous challenging mysterious fast-paced
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.25

As a kid, I really enjoyed this book; 10 years later the flaws of the book stand out to me much more. First of all it just feels like your average European fantasy- not so bad except for the racism towards Asians(the Tatars are ever so evil and they drill holes in Europeans' heads), Roma(they're called gyptians and they're kind but uneducated), and Africans(apparently zombis are just European practices but AFRICAN). Second of all I'm aware this is an older book, but Lord Asriel having the same name as the Undertale goat is so funny- I can't take him seriously. A lot of it I couldn't really take seriously- why can humans and daemons not touch each other? Why specifically is it so bad? I couldn't really get into the mindset of the world. The writing is good; I couldn't really say it's "one of the greatest" but it's certainly anything but bad. The idea of mixing steampunk(with Lee Scoresby's balloon) and fantasy(ghasts and haints) and history is cool.
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