The Golden Compass

This was a throwback read for me since it was one of my favorite childhood series so I thought I'd give it a reread to see if it held up to standard now that I'm an adult.

First I'll say that despite the witches and the talking bears and the fantasy tag: this book leans much more toward sci-fi than fantasy in my opinion. There are definitely fantasy elements, as previously established, but most of the plot centers on scientific ideals and goals like the multiverse theory and copious discussions about particles and energy including a particle made up completely for this book and world. I don't normally go for sci-fi, so while I might not have picked this book up today as a new read, I had fond enough memories of it from my childhood to dive back in.

The best part of this book is absolutely the daemons. It's such an interesting concept that I've never seen anyone try to do before; not to this scale or this detailed. I'm kind of obsessed with it to be honest, and it's what led me to gloss over the parts of the book that I would normally mark down the rating for just because it's so engaging.

That said, this book is surprisingly dense for how short it is. You really have to pay attention to make sure you know what's going on and the plot is ruthless as it goes from one place and plotline to another without giving you time to breathe. This isn't the type of book you can put down for a while and then pick back up without probably being confused about where you are for a moment. The story itself was interesting enough; I absolutely adore Lyra for all she annoys me sometimes but I think that's a good thing. For all of her talents as a protagonist: manipulation, misdirection, adaptability, the author also makes it very clear that she is still a child and she's going to make childish mistakes and still act immature. I think a trap a lot of authors fall into while writing a younger protagonist is to make them act older than their age to appeal to more readers or for plot purposes, but I think the story is made all the better when you have to grapple with the fact that Lyra IS a child and she's going to approach everything like a child would.

Overall, this is still a very solid story. I'll be finishing my reread of the trilogy for sure.