I came into this book not knowing much about it aside from the hoop-di-doo that surrounded the release of its movie. And so I ran out to get the book so I could judge it for myself.
First a plot review though: Lyra is an obnoxious little girl living on the campus of Jordan College in Oxford. She spends her times playing with her demon Pan and throwing rocks at other children. That and desecrating the tombs beneath the college. When children start disappearing, the people begin passing tales of the gobblers, who steal children for nefarious reasons.
Lyra's best friend is kidnapped and she leaves in the company of Mrs. Coulter. When she leaves the master of the college gives her an alethiometer, a magical device that tells you the correct answer to any question you ask it. She soon realizes that Mrs. Coulter is the head of the gobblers and runs away. She soon finds herself in the middle of the artic taking part in war between armored polar bears and finding out what the gobblers' plan really is.
Upon reading this, I have to say I wasn't very impressed. Neither the world nor the characters really seems to have a past stretching back before page 1. And Lyra travels through the story barely acting, but mostly being acted upon. Things happen to her, she gets upset, and then the things resolve. None of that really lends itself any feeling of tension.
A quick primer in plot... A story starts with the reader completely disoriented and so the first order is to introduce characters, world, and conflict. Hopefully, the author does that in an engaging method that makes you loath to put down the book. Then, the hero's plans to resolve the conflict repeated fail, constantly raising the stakes and tension. Finally, you reach the climax where hero and villain duke it out and only one can emerge victorious. After that comes the denouement where tension drains away and you put down the book feeling like you've actually been through something. Literature classes use a diagram like this to show how such a plot progesses:
The Golden Compass doesn't have a plot diagram like this. It doesn't have rising action, climax, and falling action. Instead, it has a diagram like this (my best estimation):
Yes, there is, in fact, a point in the middle where the tension is lower than it is at the beginning. Really, the entire book felt like it was only Act 1 of a bigger story. Yes, I'm aware it's the first book in a trilogy, but even in trilogies, each book should be able to stand alone as a book in and of itself.
Now, let's talk about the ending. I hate endings where there is absolutely no victory for the protagonist (not to say I don't do sad endings. They can be cool, but even then it's nice to have at least some feeling of victory at the end). I also hate endings where the hero does nothing but watch the climax. This does both. Yes, Lyra watches the entire climax without really acting as she loses.
As for the anti-religious aspects that were big in the news. There's not that much until you get to the very end. Then it gets really preachy about how organized religion (its world's Catholic Church) is evil. And wow does he lay it on. I seriously can't see how anyone could take it seriously. The Magisterium is such a straw man for Pullman to beat on, it's really ridiculous.
My other major issue was that the only way I had any tension was by assuming the heroes were all stupid. The alethiometer can tell you anything, and yet the heroes are constantly caught by surprise because they only use it when the plot needs them to go in some new direction. They spend the rest of the time wondering what will happen next, but never consult it. If people actually used it properly, they'd conquer the entire universe without any real opposition.
That said, I want a demon.
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