Book Review - The Northern Lights

[Kalgri Sicaria]

*This review was written as part of the Astonishing Adaptations event*

Title of the book: The Northern Lights
Authors: Philip Pullman
Series: His Dark Materials
Genres: Children's Literature, Fantasy Fiction, Steampunk
Short summary of the story:
Set in a parallel universe, the book follows the adventures of Lyra Belaqua as she travels to the Arctic in search of her Uncle, Lord Asriel, and her missing friend Roger.
Good points / bad points:
The first book in a trilogy, The Northern Lights is a well-written coming-of-age story set in a world similar to our own, but different enough to really capture the reader's imagination. The characters and world-building are incredibly engaging and I can see how many young girls reading the books may identify with Lyra. I first read this book when I was about ten years old, and I remember loving the almost magical feel of the world Pullman created. The inclusion of daemons - a part of your soul that is visible to all others, and can speak - is really imaginative, allowing characters to act in ways that people would not in our world. On the negative side, some of the themes in these books are quite mature (more so as the trilogy progresses), and so can be confusing or upsetting for the intended audience. All of the children in the books end up in dangerous situations, and the world is clearly shown to be an unsafe place. As much as I enjoyed these books at a younger age, I would question their classification as children's books, rather than young adult fiction.

Adaptation:
To date, there have been two adaptations of this book. The first was a film, 'The Golden Compass', released in 2007, and more recently a BBC TV series 'His Dark Materials' began airing in 2019. The film adaptation was excellently cast, and the costumes and sets were amazing - I feel like it captured the book's wonder. It was not very successful, however, and I believe that there were two main reasons for this. Firstly, they expected it to do really well - the books were popular and it was a star-studded cast - so they cut the ending short to give them more material for the second film (as the second book is the shortest of the three), this meant that the main plot of the first book is unresolved at the end of the film. I can remember feeling disappointed seeing the film in the cinema and not seeing the ending of the book. The other reason is that many adults were vocally opposed to the books (in a similar way to the opposition to the Harry Potter series) due to the themes of magic, religion, and children growing up that feature heavily in the series. The more recent BBC series is very good. It uses material from the second book in the first series to give more background to some characters, and is well-acted. I feel that it is much darker in tone than the film or the books - a lot of the wonder has gone, and it definitely appears to be aimed at an older audience. I am happy that I will finally see the whole story play out on-screen, but I have to say I prefer the style of the film version.

[Janne Halla]

I really love the world of this book. I've always wondered what my daemon would be and how I'd manage to live somewhere like this or what my role would be. It's such an interesting concept that really drew me in as a youngster, when I first read the book and now that I'd come back to it.

Lyra, the protagonist, learns that she is capable of so much and that people are not always what they appear in this absolutely amazing narrative, which I suppose makes her lose some of her innocent childlike naivety. Her story and character development, especially in later books, seems very natural and believable of someone in her situation.

Pullman is an extraordinarily gifted author and storyteller. The novel's premise and flow are original, imaginative, and incredibly captivating. There is not a single dull moment in the entire book; it is action-packed, but most intelligently, it crafts a single, wonderful tale that is impossible to quickly forget.

Overall, it's incredibly captivating, mystical, and fantastic. It has to do with morals, spirituality, good against evil, and safeguarding children from adult corruption.