A review by mudder17
The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman

3.0

Okay, I didn't hate it. But I didn't love it either. While I seem to be in the minority, I just didn't find the story all that interesting and the characters were so-so. For me, characters are all important and in this story, many of the main characters just felt very one-dimensional. Some of the fantasy/religious/magic/sci-fi whatever you want to call it was interesting--I liked the Daemons and that they represented the soul and reflected the personality of the person. And having them cut off like one would castrate someone definitely made me cringe, but it made that part of the story more awful. But although I liked certain characters like Farder Coram, Pantalaimon, John Faa, Lorek Byrnison, and Dr. Lanselius, I really didn't like most of the characters. Lyra was tolerable, but she wasn't my favorite person--she was kind of annoying at times. I'm sure I am in the minority, but this book was just meh for me. I am not sure if I will continue in the series. Maybe when I'm bored one day, lol.