The Golden Compass

His Dark Materials, Book 1

By: Philip Pullman

Narrated by: Philip Pullman, Joanna Wyatt, Rupert Degas, Alison Dowling, Douglas Blackwell, Jill Shilling, Stephen Thorne, Sean Barrett, Garrick Hagon, John O'Connor, Susan Sheridan, Full Cast

Length: 11 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

His Dark Materials is now an HBO original series starring Dafne Keen, Ruth Wilson, James Mcavoy, and Lin-Manuel Miranda!

Featuring an exclusive bonus interview between the author, Philip Pullman, and His Dark Materials star Ruth Wilson.

The modern fantasy classic that Entertainment Weekly named an “All-Time Greatest Novel” and Newsweek hailed as a “Top 100 Book of All Time”.

Philip Pullman takes listeners to a world where humans have animal familiars and where parallel universes are within reach.

Lyra is rushing to the cold, far North, where witch clans and armored bears rule. North, where the Gobblers take the children they steal - including her friend Roger. North, where her fearsome uncle Asriel is trying to build a bridge to a parallel world.

Can one small girl make a difference in such great and terrible endeavors? This is Lyra: a savage, a schemer, a liar, and as fierce and true a champion as Roger or Asriel could want.

But what Lyra doesn't know is that to help one of them will be to betray the other....

A masterwork of storytelling and suspense, Philip Pullman's award-winning The Golden Compass is the first in the His Dark Materials series, which continues with The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass.

A number one New York Times best seller

Winner of the Guardian Prize for Children's Fiction

Published in 40 countries

"Arguably the best juvenile fantasy novel of the past 20 years." (The Washington Post)

"Very grand indeed." (The New York Times)

"Pullman is quite possibly a genius." (Newsweek)

Don't miss Philip Pullman's epic new trilogy set in the world of His Dark Materials, the Book of Dust:

• La Belle Sauvage
• The Secret Commonwealth

Listen to the rest of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series.

©1995 Philip Pullman (P)1999 Random House, Inc.

Critic reviews

"Superb.... Wonder-filled." (Washington Post Book World)

"Very grand indeed.... Scene after scene of power and beauty." (The New York Times)

"A rousing, page-turning adventure that promises to please fantasy readers of all ages." (Library Journal)

Creative story and great audiobook

Definitely among the best audiobooks I've listened to. Great voice acting, and the author being the narrator is great because then you hear it as it was meant to be read.
As far as the book itself: Great writing and story, very creative, and cool world he created. I did think that in the second half there was too much conveniently carrying along from part to part. The first half and ending were great though.
I'm excited to continue the story, though wary of the message the author intends.

Thought provoking

Great audio
Interesting theories regarding the makeup of the universe.
Rather sexist though. At least in the first half.
Set in a Vatican 1 society. Maybe not for those who are sensitive to anti-religion speech.

Great - but - another misogynist fantasy

The story is very good and the performances (yes there are many) are superb. It's an amazingly good audiobook. My only quibble is that it is yet another fantasy sci-fi story in which women are less than second class citizens. Yes it's 20 years old but there is lots of progressive fiction and fantasy out there. It's too bad because the story is terrific and the performances are top-notch.
Let's move beyond the GoT medieval women are chattel paradigm.

great story

the performance was awesome and I loved the story. I can't wait to listen to the second book.

A Wonderful Production

A beautiful coming of age story in a land where witches fly, bears wear armor and every human has a daemon that lives alongside them for life. Every voice is excellently performed by the various voice actors and Pullman himself has a captivating narrative tone that lends an air of credence to every word. Definitely worth a listen.

Great book read expertly

This book is the beginning of what is by far my favorite story, I read it first in middle school and it still keeps me riveted when ever I read/listen to it again

excellent production

I've always loved this book. Being able to listen to this production, done by a full cast, was wonderful. Really looking forward to book 2.

Everything about this is perfect

The performance is breathtaking. The story one of the best ever told. I cannot recommend this highly enough to everyone- if you have already read this book- you are still missing out until you've heard this full cast performance. If you haven't read this- I seriously don't know what you've been waiting for! This is the book you've been looking for. This is the book with characters I would name my children after. This book is a masterpiece I will be reading and rereading for the rest of my life.

A Great Way To Start!

Would you listen to The Golden Compass again? Why?

This was my very first audio book from Audible, and I loved it, and I loved the experience of listening to it. This book is narrated by the author (which I understand is unusual) and a cast of actors (likewise unusual). Everybody was great, though the flat affect of the bear was a little offputting. I'm glad I have a permanent copy of the book because I'll probably listen to it again, sometime. I started listening to this on a road trip To Spokane, but was only part way through when I got home. I found myself making time to listen on in the book, and even listened for a while at bed time for a few days until the book was done. Audio books seem to be a pretty good way for me to go to sleep. I'm glad I'll have this one available.

Over-the-top Performances

Would you consider the audio edition of The Golden Compass to be better than the print version?

Though Pullman does a respectable job of narrating, I feel the print version is better. The lack of subtlety and nuance in the individual character performances is often grating and /or distracting. Having read the print version first, it was almost as unbearable as being separated from one's daemon to hear favorite characters turned into caricatures. It doesnt seem likely that very many of the actors read the books first (a requirement as far as I'm concerned).I'm rather shocked at all the glowing reviews of the performances. Ugh.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I would have preferred Philip Pullman narrate the entire book. The quality of the dramatization definitely detracted from the story.

Any additional comments?

I hope the books are redone and would love to see them read by Michael Sheen, who narrated the prequel, Book of Dust. In the meantime, I'm going back to the print version.