The Golden Compass
The Golden Compass is the first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy. While the trilogy in it's entirety is fairly controversial due to it's negative portrayal of the church, this theme doesn't really become apparent until the end of the first book. Instead, The Golden Compass is at heart an adventure tale. It follows eleven-year-old Lyra Belacqua as she journeys north to save her best friend, Roger, from the Gobblers. The Gobblers have been kidnapping children for their own nefarious purposes. The Golden Compass takes place in a world that is similar to ours, but also incredibly different. The first and most dramatic difference is that a person's soul actually manifests as an animal companion known as a daemon. There are more subtle etymological and historical differences. For example, in this book John Calvin became pope and then ultimately disbanded the papacy in favor of a board of officials known as The Magisterium. The church ...