Northern Lights - Philip Pullman
Rating: ★★★ 1/2
I liked Lyra, Pan and the worldbuilding a lot, but there is a lot still unsaid
the presence of the Church sort-of sneaks up through the story


Lyra has grown up in Oxford, at Jordan College, visited every once in a while by her uncle Lord Asriel. Her daemon is named Pantalaimon and still changing shapes. While exploring the Retiring Room, she hears for the first time of the Dust. Some time later, Lyra meets Marisa Coulter, who offers to take her away from Jordan College. The morning she is leaving, Master entrusts Lyra with an alethiometer, a device that always answer truthfully to the questions asked to it, if one can interpret the answer. Lyra keeps it secret for Mrs Coulter in their time in London. During a cocktail party hosted by Mrs Coulter, Lyra and Pan escapes. They find refuge with the gyptians, who take them to the fens where a big meeting is taking place to decide what to do about the disappearances of many gyptian children. The gyptians mount an expedition north, following traces of the Gobblers, and Lyra accompanies them. During the trip north, she learns that Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter are her parents. In Trollesund, the gyptians hire the help of an aeronaut (Lee Scoresby) and of an armored bear (Iorek Byrnison) before setting out. Lyra, reading the alethiometer, leaves the group with Iorek Byrnison to investigate a village where they found a severed child. He dies shortly after they make it back to the group. They are then attacked by Samoyeds, who kidnapped Lyra and sell her to the Experimental Station in Bolvangar. Lyra organizes the children's escape while setting the station afire, but not before meeting again with Mrs Coulter (who saved her in extremis of being severed). The children are rescued by the gyptians while Lyra, her friend Roger and Iorek found refuge in Lee Scoresby's balloon, guided by witches towards Svalbard. Lyra is thrown out of the basket of the balloon and found by bears. She tricks the King of the bears (Iofur Raknison, who more than anything wants a daemon of its own) into fighting Iorek. Iorek wins the fight and becomes King of the bears. He escorts Lyra to Lord Asriel's laboratory, where Lord Asriel was waiting for the last piece of his experiment to [bridge to other worlds]. He leaves in the night with Roger and Lyra and Iorek pursue him. Iorek's forces are attacked by witches and then by Mrs Coulter's zeppelin. A crevasse forced Lyra to leave Iorek behind. She tries to rescue Roger, but fails and Roger and his daemon are severed, leading to Roger's death. Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter discuss their plans, unaware that Lyra is hearing them. She decides to go find the Dust herself, refusing to believe, like her parents, that it must be destroyed.