The Golden Compass

I read the His Dark Materials trilogy by Philip Pullman last year. They're a pretty good little series, and anyone aching from the end of Harry Potter would probably enjoy reading them. Same for anyone who enjoyed LoTR or the Narnia books. Which is to say that they're heavy on fantasy and ostensibly for young people but sophisticated books that adult readers will also enjoy.

The first book of the series is The Golden Compass (published as Northern Lights in England and for reasons most assuredly stupid changed in the states) has been made into a movie and suffers from many of the problems particular to the beloved childhood fantasy translated to a major motion picture. Possibly it would be completely incomprehensible to any viewer who has not read the book. I should mention that I fell asleep a couple of times during the movie, but that has more to do with me being a big, sleepy, old-timer loser who is no longer capable of going out on a Friday night. I thought the characters were really great, especially Nicole Kidman who just crackles as the shimmery ice queen Ms. Coulter. One of my favorite things about the books, the idea that really captured my imagination, was that every person has a daemon, an animal familiar that sort of shares their soul and is never far away. It was really fun to see everyone's daemon on the big screen. I wish I had one. Apparently if I did, it would be him: