library binding, 399 pages
Published Jan. 22, 1999 by Demco Media.
In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped …
In a landmark epic of fantasy and storytelling, Philip Pullman invites readers into a world as convincing and thoroughly realized as Narnia, Earthsea, or Redwall. Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.
La trama scorre via tranquilla, le situazioni sono ben descritte e non ci sono parti affettatamente sentimentali.
È un bel libro che offre qualche colpo di scena, anche se solo uno secondo me è ben riuscito.
Spero mi abbia risvegliato dal letargo di lettura!
Un ottimo modo per iniziare una saga fantasy.
Dopo aver visto il film, qualche puntata del telefilm, ed aver notato un generale disinteresse nel pubblico, mi sono parecchio incuriosita, perché a me le premesse sembravano davvero buone (dai, chi non vorrebbe sapere che forma prenderebbe il proprio daimon?).
L'ho letto in italiano, ma lo stile sembra scorrevole, le descrizioni non si dilungano inutilmente ed i dialoghi sono adatti anche ad un pubblico di ragazzini. Non c'è nulla di troppo complicato, ma non c'è nulla di troppo banale.
L'ho adorato.
Molti dicono che la bellezza della saga si perda nel secondo e nel terzo libro, ma a metà del secondo ancora non mi trovano d'accordo.
Read this alongside the TV series.
Wrote some notes on the Show/Book parity at github.com/captn3m0/captn3m0.github.com/blob/master/_drafts/his-dark-materials.md
It's a good book and a great series. Pullman created a fascinating universe and an engaging story.
