The Golden Compass (audio book) by Philip Pullman, narrated by the author with the support of a full cast

I checked this out from the library. After finishing Gail Carson Levine's Fairest, I really wanted to listen to another book read by a full cast, and The Golden Compass was one of the books that came up in my library catalog search.

I wonder, does The Golden Compass count as steampunk? I'm not sure, but my guess is that it does, which would explain why so many steampunk titles popped into my mind while I was thinking up read-alikes/watch-alikes.

Synopsis:

Twelve-year-old Lyra Belacqua (I could be wrong about her age...) has grown up wild and relatively free, raised haphazardly by the scholars at Jordan College. Like everyone else in this alternate world, Lyra has a daemon, a physical manifestation of her soul. Because she is still a child, her daemon, Pan, can assume whatever animal form he wishes. When a person goes through puberty, their daemon settles into a single form.

When Lyra first hears of the Gobblers (supposedly, monsters who eat children), she thinks of them mostly as delightfully scary story fodder. Then children she knows start to disappear, including her best friend, Roger. Lyra wants to find and save him but briefly finds herself distracted by a change in her own circumstances, after she is suddenly sent to live with the beautiful and mysterious Mrs. Coulter. After they learn that Mrs. Coulter is connected to the Gobblers, Lyra and Pan escape and are taken in by Gyptians, nomadic people who know more about Lyra and her past than she herself knows.

While traveling with the Gyptians, Lyra figures out how to use the alethiometer, a rare and very important device given to her before she left Jordan College. She befriends various people and beings, learns more about a mysterious thing called Dust and what the Gobblers really are, and tries to find a way to save her friend Roger and Lord Asriel, the man from whom she first learned about Dust.

Review:

I have read this book several times, and I think I may have listened to the audio version before as well, because several of the voices sounded very familiar. I love this book, although my enjoyment of it always seems to surprise me whenever I reread it. I'm not sure why that is. It's like I forget just how much I enjoyed it.

The Golden Compass (live action movie)

In Lyra Belacqua's world, every person has something called a daemon, a creature that looks like an animal and is something like that person's soul. Lyra and her daemon, Pan, basically run wild at Jordan College in Oxford, but that changes when her uncle comes and she finds out about something called Dust. Lyra's best friend is kidnapped by a mysterious group called the Gobblers (later revealed to be the General Oblation Board), and Lyra eventually goes on a journey to find him. She travels with another group of people called the Gyptians, who are also searching for a kidnapped child, and makes friends with the gun-toting Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison, an exiled ice bear.

I had already read Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass several times before watching this movie, something that definitely colored how I felt about it. In most respects, the book is far better than the movie. However, I loved how the movie handled the daemons - aside from Pan's cat form, which looks horribly fake (it's something about the eyes and ears), most of the animals in the movie look excellent. I was very glad to see that the movie's creators had decided to treat the story's animals as they would any human character. These weren't amusing animal sidekicks, and the ones that spoke did so with normal sounding human voices, not fake-sounding cartoon voices. I especially loved the ice bears. It was wonderful actually being able to see them moving around and wearing their armor. I didn't really like Ian McKellan as Iorek's voice, at first, since his voice didn't seem deep enough for the part, but I got used to it.

Another thing I enjoyed about this movie was the environments. They didn't really inspire the same awe in me that seeing the world of Harry Potter in the first Harry Potter movie did, but it was still nice seeing the college, Mrs. Coulter's home, Lyra's Oxford, and more. I didn't really remember some of the Victorian-style technology being in the book (like the carriages that have spinning metal to keep them running, rather than horses), but since what there was of it fit with the look of the alethiometer and the not-quite-our-world feel, I didn't mind it and thought it was kind of cool.

The movie tries to follow the story, but there's not enough time to fit in everything so some scenes are cut and some characters are reduced or combined. This is why the movie falls short, I think. Characters that had a more fully-fleshed feel in the book, like Serafina Pekkala, were reduced to walk-ons that could barely have any impact on audience members who've read the book, much less on those who haven't. I won't go into the sorts of scenes that were probably cut out for time constraints, but I would like to write about some things that I suspect were cut out to make the movie more suitable for children.

The book this movie was based on had at least two children's deaths that I remember. I guess they decided that would be too horrible a thing to do in a movie children might be going to see (never mind that the book was also written for children), so those children's deaths were cut out of the movie. This wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't resulted in the complete erasure of some of the most wrenching moments in the book. In the book, the part where Lyra meets and interacts with the boy who's lost his daemon made me cry - in the movie, the boy becomes someone with family to comfort him, and his story is wrapped up by making it seem as though having his daemon cut away is something he can recover from. Also, the movie ends before Lyra and Roger reach Lord Asriel's prison - the result of this is that there's no evidence that Asriel is anything but a good guy, and there's none of the emotional impact of his betrayal (the betrayal of one of the few authority figures Lyra still completely trusts) and the result of that betrayal.

Although there are a few very violent scenes in this movie, there's no blood. There's battle involving guns and swords, but no one who gets shot or cut bleeds. Although I still think it's amusing that people think it's fine for children to view violence as long as there isn't any blood (wouldn't this teach them that violence has no consequences, if it teaches them anything?), I'm used to it, and it didn't really phase me. Parents would probably appreciate it. However, there is one scene that's pretty gruesome, even without blood. When Iorek fights the King of the Bears, things end when Iorek rips the king's jaw off and it flies towards the camera. There's no blood, even with a scene as gruesome as this, so it's a bit hard to tell what happened, but I was amazed that they kept something like this in the movie after they worked so hard to make it sterile and bloodless.

The one big issue that everyone focused on as a reason to hate this movie was the potential for anti-Christian aspects. There's not much in this movie for people with these fears to complain about. The Magisterium is obviously a bad group, what with them killing children in their pursuit of dust-less people, but the movie doesn't make much of an attempt to connect the Magisterium and the Church. The closest the movie comes to potentially offending Christians is when Mrs. Coulter tries to explain to Lyra why the General Oblation Board has been cutting daemons away from children. Basically, you can think of Dust as sin, children are in a state of innocence, and daemons whose forms have settled allow Dust/sin into their people. If you cut a child's daemon away from him or her, Dust/sin can't enter that child and he or she will continue to live in a state of innocence. If you read the books, you discover that Mrs. Coulter and the General Oblation Board assume that Dust in bad, when, in fact, it's just part of life and the universe - the movie doesn't get to the point where you find this bit out, so, as far as the viewers who haven't read the books are concerned, Mrs. Coulter and the General Oblation Board are doing terrible things in an attempt to do what they think is best for everyone.

Read-alikes and Watch-alikes:

• Fullmetal Alchemist (anime TV series); Fullmetal Alchemist (manga) by Hiromu Arakawa; Fullmetal Alchemist: The Movie (anime movie) - In a world where alchemy is considered science, Ed and Al, two young brothers, have broken the primary rule of alchemy, the law of equivalent exchange. As a result, Ed lost an arm and a leg, and Al lost his whole body. Now they're on a journey to discover the Philosopher's Stone and use it to restore their bodies. This series has humor, drama, and action. There's also quite a few thoughtful moments, as the brothers try to think through what they need to do, what the potential costs are, and whether those costs are worth it. If you watched The Golden Compass and liked the environments, the feeling of a mix of science and magic, the hints of multiple worlds, and the action, you might like Fullmetal Alchemist. Both the anime and the manga are good, although the anime is very different from the manga after a certain point. Once you finish the anime, there's also a movie that wraps things up in a grand battles and multi-world spanning way - it's not advisable to watch the movie before finishing the anime TV series.
• Last Exile (anime TV series) - Claus and Lavie are pilot and co-pilot of a Vanship (a flying machine) and act as couriers. The two of them get involves in a mysterious mission to return a little girl to a famous ship called the Silvana. Like the world of The Golden Compass, the world in Last Exile has a 19th century feel combined with amazing and beautiful technology. Those who want something with action, a far-reaching journey, and, eventually, undercurrents of machinations involving those in positions of authority might like this TV series.
• Sabriel (book) by Garth Nix - Sabriel is in her last year at Wyverley College, which is located in an area where Magic doesn't work. When she finds out that her father is somehow trapped in Death, Sabriel must journey to the Old Kingdom, where Magic does work, in order to find him and save him. Sabriel, like her father, has the power to lay the dead to rest, and she must use this ability to save herself and those she befriends as she attempts to help her father. Like Lyra in The Golden Compass, Sabriel is a capable girl who is a bit vulnerable where her father is concerned. Readers who want something with magic, an interesting cast of characters, action, and a perilous journey might like this book. This is the first in Nix's Abhorsen Trilogy.
• The Golden Compass (book) by Philip Pullman - If you watched the movie and liked it, or if you watched the movie and saw promise in the story and in the characters, you may very well like the book. As I've already said, the characters are better developed, the world is more realized, and things make more sense.

Once Upon a Time in the North (book) by Philip Pullman

This book (novella?) takes place about 35 years before the events in Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. Having recently won a hot air balloon, Lee Scoresby and his rabbit daemon, Hester, fly to a place called Novy Odense in the hopes of finding someone in need of an aeronaut. What they find is a politician running on an anti-bear platform and a ship's captain in a bad situation. Lee, being the all-around great guy and adventurer that he is, helps out the people who need and deserve him most (i.e., the good guys) with thoughtful honesty, fast lying, and good shooting. This is also the first time he meets the bear Iorek Byrnison.

If you've stayed away from Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy because you were worried about the potentially anti-Christian aspects, or if you didn't want to deal with some of the heavy philosophical bits, then you're in luck - there's none of that here. This story is mostly just a vehicle for Lee, a likable character from the trilogy, to reappear for some adventure. If you really wanted to find a reason to hate this book, you might be able to argue that the politician is symbolic of Senator/Congressman/Mayor/Etc. So-and-so and it's an unfairly negative presentation. However, unless you decide to do something like that, this really isn't all that controversial. Lee is very attracted to and flirts with a young woman, and there's some bloody (but not gorily described) gunfighting, so I wouldn't recommend that the very young read this, but it's not going to possibly rock anyone's religious boat either.

Now that that's out of the way, here are some of the reasons to like this book. If you've actually read the His Dark Materials trilogy, you'll enjoy the appearance of two characters from the trilogy - Iorek and Lee Scoresby. You get to find out how Lee and Iorek first met, and what each of them was like when they were younger. The book also includes "reproductions" of letters, book pages, etc., that make Lee's world and his story seem even more like something that actually happened. Although almost everything in the book is from 35 years before the trilogy, the last few "reproductions" are from after the trilogy - letters from Lyra and the form she filled out to submit her dissertation. That's right, Lyra's apparently being a good, scholarly girl now.

If you haven't read the trilogy, you might not feel as much connection to the events and characters, but you may still like this book for Lee's fast-talking and the gun-fighting action. Also, the weirdness of an anti-bear political campaign should be a draw - the trilogy gives much more information about the bears, but, if you don't know about them, this aspect of the story should be nicely mysterious and maybe even funny. Lee doesn't know about the bears either, and his reaction to the idea of talking bears is amusing.

Oh, also, this book apparently includes a board game, but since I got my copy from the public library the board game has been removed. I can't say whether the game is enjoyable or not.

Read-alikes:

• The Airman by Eoin Colfer - Conor Broekhart wants nothing more than to design flying machines and take to the air himself. However, young Conor is imprisoned after he is falsely accused of the murder of King Nick. In the coming years, he plans his elaborate and dangerous escape - but what will he do after that? Like Lee, Conor lives for the air. Although this book is a bit slower than Once Upon a Time in the North, it's got its own tense moments, action, and planning. I originally listened to the audio version of this, and the reader did an excellent job, so if you like audio books I'd suggest trying this one out.
• Firefly (live action American TV series) - A motley group flies through space looking for work. Most of what they do is illegal (like stealing), but if it gets them money they don't mind so much. It's a bit like a Western in space. I know, I know, this isn't a book, but I'm trying to stick with things I've read or seen when I come up with these lists, and I don't read much adventure. Besides, the captain, Mal, at his gun-toting, fast-talking best reminds me a little of Lee Scoresby.
• The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman - If you enjoyed Once Upon a Time in the North and you haven't read the His Dark Materials trilogy yet, you should, starting with The Golden Compass. You may not agree with the things Pullman has to say about religion, and the philosophical aspects might be a little daunting, but that doesn't mean this isn't a fun series. In the first book, a young girl, Lyra, and her daemon go on a journey in order to figure out why children are going missing. She is aided by the many friends she makes along the way, as well as a mysterious alethiometer, which can answer just about any question if you can figure out how to use it.
• Fullmetal Alchemist (manga) by Hiromu Arakawa - Two young brothers pay a horrible price when they break the most important rule of alchemy - the law of equivalent exchange - by trying to bring their mother back from the dead. Since that time, the brothers have been trying to find the Philosopher's Stone, hoping it can help them restore their bodies and undo the damage they have done. As in Once Upon a Time in the North, this takes place in an alternate world that occasionally feels like our world as it might have been several decades ago. There's plenty of danger and action, although this series has a decent amount of introspection, as well. Both the manga and the anime are good, although the anime differs greatly from the manga after a certain point.