Other editions of book The Golden Compass: His Dark Materials, Book 1

Lyra Belacqua is content to run wild among the scholars of Jordan College, with her daemon familiar, Pantalaimon, always by her side. But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, draws her to the heart of a terrible struggle -- a struggle born of Gobblers and stolen children, witch clans and armored bears. And as she hurtles toward danger in the cold far North, Lyra never suspects the shocking truth: she alone is destined to win, or to lose, this more-than-mortal battle. Beautifully crafted and thrillingly told, this first book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy has been hailed as a modern fantasy classic. Along with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, The Golden Compass is a masterwork of storytelling and suspense, beloved by readers and listeners of all ages around the world. Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy has received a host of awards and accolades, including the prestigious Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, the world's biggest children's literary prize. The entire trilogy is available on audio from Listening Library. Philip lives in Oxford, England. Visit his website at www. philip-pullman. com.

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.