Philip Pullman, Northern Lights

I really enjoyed Philip Pullman, Northern Lights, simply because it had a great deal of thought involved in it.

The story is about Lyra's - a rebellious girl rom Jordon College in Oxford. Set in a world very similar, yet very different to our own, Lyra sets out on a journey to Save her uncle, the children being kidnapped and discover the significance and importance of Dust.

This is the first in a series of 3 books - "His Dark Materials" By Philip Pullman.

Before I let you know my thought - I have only read this book and have not yet read the other 2 although I will be and review them accordingly.

I thought that Northern Lights is an okay book.It is a difficult world to get into a time, but fascinating and intriguing all the same. Personally I prefer the Harry Potter series - however I do not really think that the 2 compare, as the stories are so very different.

Northern Lights is a truly unique read, and a very creative world has been created for the reader.

At times I felt like I was getting throught the book and it was hard work to read, at other time I could not wait to see what would happen next. The characters are very interesting and each is very very different. It is also only the Subtle Knife because I really want to see what happens.

The book is very dark and is not intended for smaller childern. It also covers come very controversal issues (mainly involving the Church) - which to be honest I felt spoilt the story at times, Pullman should have kept the Fantasy alive as each time he brought real life issues into the book it reminded me I was reading and I drifted any from his world back into reality a little.

That said it is a good read and I do recommend it to everyone and anyone. I will let you know how I find the second one when I have finished it!

Philip Pullman, Northern Lights is a well-known children's fantasy writer, but his books always have an edge of reality, opening up new worlds in a believable way. This is the first book in the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, all of which are unputdownable books. From the very first page of Northern Lights, you are drawn into a new world, with a girl called Lyra. Every child has a daemon - an animal spirit guide who is always with them. All is well with Lyra until she discovers that a poisoning has been planned. She has to stop it, and from that moment on is propelled further into an adventure that she had never before imagined.

Well-written, with compelling subject matter.

Unfortunately, these books tend to be expensive, but they are well worth the read.

I am 41 yrs old and this audio production of Philip Pullman's Northern Lights represents my personal favourite audiobook ever produced.

I have just one thing to add to the previous reviewer who mentioned Joanne Wyatt's fluctuating accent. This I believe was deliberate and formed part of the character of Lyra. Lyra's character is one of great adaptability and directly related to the role she was playing at the time. Whether she was mixing with the backstreet children of Oxford or as Mrs Coulter's personal assistant in London, or on the road with the Gyptians she always adjusted her behaviour to blend with her surroundings. With this her accent went hand in hand. She even on occaisions played the shy vulnerable child. All of this was captured masterfully by Joanne Wyatt. Her performance was just one of the qualities that makes this Cover to Cover version infinately better than the BBC's own Radio 4 version that is also available.

Do not make the error of buying the Radio 4 version as it is lack lustre by comparison (sorry Radio 4, I love many of your other productions). Many of the character's in that version are played in two dimensional fashion and the they have played around with the plot a little. The lead character (Lyra) in the Radio 4 version was hugely disapointing and this was crucial to the enjoyment of the whole production.

So, in short, get this Cover to Cover full cast version!

I throughly enjoyed Philip Pullman's Northern Lights because of the fantasy of the book. The discriptions took you into a different world and made you want to find out what happened next even before you turned the page.

We are doing Philip Pullman's Northern Lights at school, i thought it was good when i heard what it was going to be about. Even my friends that have already read it said that it was 'exciting', but as i am doing this book in english, i really hate it now. My teacher gives out realy hard work every lesson, and homework! Im on my second essay -to do with this novel- at the moment, and seeing as we have already gone over EVERY aspect of the book, this one is on the good and bad reviews of it! It makes me laugh! Anyway, back to the review, i realy quite resemble it now because we have 'analyzed' it too much. I know that there are a lot of people out there who disagree with me, but trust me, if you had to do loads of work on:the different levels; connotations; different worlds; tense changes and sentence structure then you would hate it just as much as me.

This was and still is a really good book, but it was ruined for me because i looked into it too much.

Thanks for reading this, Anna xxx

Northern Lights by Philip Pullman is the first in a fantastic trilogy of childrens books. I read it immediately after the death of my father, so it will always be associated with that for me. I feel quite lucky about that, because it deals with such big things: deep loss, identity, consciousness, the getting of maturity and the death of illusion.

I loved the whole trilogy and most of the time I was reading I just gaped at the audacity and the scope of the story. I think the review centre should also include this book in your adult section - it really is the most grown-up of books.

For me, Northern Lights is easily the best of the three, although the others are terrific too.

This is the first book in Philip Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy. The heroine, Lyra, a girl of twelve who lives in a world very similar to ours, has fantastic, sometimes terrifying adventures which culminate in a tragic conclusion. The thing I like about this book is that the main characters are complex, neither completely good, nor completely bad. Mrs. Coulter, Lyra's mother, for example, is in many ways evil, but does have one or two redeeming characteristics. It's also good to have a book based around a female heroine for a change. You won't be able to put it down!