Book Review: "The Golden Compass", by Philip Pullman (Part 2)

While waiting for Iorek to finish his contractual obligation, Lyra meets the daemon of Serafina Pekkala, queen of one of the witch clans.  She retrieves Farder Coram and the two discuss the possibility of assistance.  It turns out that many of the witch clans are working with what the daemon calls the Dust Hunters, those people who have come from the south to learn more about Dust.  They have built a facility at Bolvangar, where they carry on experiments of unknown origin.  They also learn that Asriel, although imprisoned, is attempting to build a bridge to the city he claims exists within the Aurora.  No one knows if this is good or bad, but the witch clans are torn as to who they will support.

In the meantime, an aeronaut from the country of Texas, Lee Scoresby, joins the group.  It turns out he's a friend of Iorek the armored bear.  With Lyra using the alethiometer, she is able to locate Iorek's armor.  Iorek retrieves his armor, and the party heads back towards the main group.  However, Lyra learns (through the alethiometer) that a nearby town is troubled by some sort of ghost, and she convinces Iorek to take her there.  What she discovers is not a ghost, but a young boy that was taken by the Gobblers from one of the gyptian families.  In horror, she realizes that the boy no longer has his daemon, leaving him semiconscious and almost zombie-like.  The experiments at Bolvangar have succeeded at intercision, the separation of daemons from their humans, without which humans cannot live.  Lyra and Iorek take the young boy and meet up with the rest of the gyptian camp, but he dies soon after their arrival.

On the journey Lyra discovers why Iorek is a renegade.  He killed another bear years ago, an offense punishable by being cast out of the bear clan.  Before she can learn much more, however, the group is attacked, and Lyra is kidnapped and carted off to Bolvangar.  She meets the adult staff and realizes that while they still have their daemons, the connection between the two is not strong.  Lyra meets the other children in the facility, who are well cared for, but who must submit to many strange tests and experiments, and who will eventually be taken away, never to be seen again.  More importantly, she finds Roger, the friend who was taken away by the Gobblers.  The children inform Lyra that Mrs. Coulter visits the facility from time to time, arriving by dirigible.  Armed with this knowledge, Lyra decides it's time to plan an escape.

During a fire drill, she stumbles upon a room full of caged daemons and manages to release them.  Shy hides when some adult come into the area, followed by Mrs. Coulter.  It's then that Lyra overhears the latest on the site's research into separating children from their daemons.  She's discovered and nearly goes through the chocess herself, but is saved when Mrs. Coulter appears and recognizes Lyra, saving her from becoming the next research subject.  Mrs. Coulter then explains that Dust is an evil thing which collects on people once they reach adolescence.  Daemons no longer change shape but assume only one.  Adults are "infected" and this is what makes them do wrong things.  Once a daemon is separated from its child, it cannot make the child think wrong things, and Dust cannot affect it.  The reason Lord Asriel wants the alethiometer is to use it to do something bad related to the Dust and to the world it comes from.  Mrs. Coulter wants Lyra to give it to her to prevent that.

Lyra does not trust Mrs. Coulter and manages to trick her, getting away to pull the fire alarm and help the other children escape.  Before they can be rounded up by the Tartans, local natives with wolf daemons, the witches and Iorek Byrnison appear with the gyptians and Lee Scoresby, rescuing the children.

As the group heads north in Scoresby's balloon towards Svalbard, where Lord Asriel is being kept prisoner, Serafina Pekkala explains to Lyra that Lord Asriel does indeed need the alethiometer to accomplish his goal, which is to move into the world of the Aurora and somehow stop Dust from contaminating their world.  Mrs. Coulter, as a representative of the Magisterium, wants to prevent that from happening.  The witch queen also informs Lyra that Iorek Byrnison is the rightful king of the armored bears, and that another bear, Iofur Raknison, has usurped the throne and taken charge.  Suddenly the party is attacked by monstrous cliff-ghasts, bringing down the balloon.  Lyra is separated from the party and taken captive by the armored bears.

She meets the bear king, Iofur Raknison, and learns that what he wants more than anything else is to have a daemon like a human.  He is also imprisoning Lord Asriel at Mrs. Coulter's request.  Lyra convinces the bear king that she is a created daemon and that Iorek Byrnison is on his way to Svalbard to make her his own.  She insists she wants to be Iofur Raknison's daemon instead, and proposes the two fight to see who wins her.  The bear king accepts the challenge, and when Iofur Raknison arrives, Lyra lets him know what she has done and how she has arranged the fight.  He accepts as well, and the two bears square off.  The bear king is stronger but Iorek defeats him in battle, takes his place as rightful king of the armored bears, and has the bears tear down the entire structure that Iorek Byrnison had built.

Lyra is then taken to where Lord Asriel is imprisoned.  They have a heated discussion where Asriel teaches Lyra of his theories.  Years ago a scientist discovered a new elementary particle which had unusual properties.  One of the strangest was its attraction to humans, adults moreso than children.  The Magesterium was informed of this particle (which they called Dust) and after trying to disprove its existence, determined that Dust was in reality original sin.  The experiments conducted at Bolvangar were approved by the Magisterium as a way to determine if separating a daemon from its human child would prevent Dust from collecting on the child, and therefore keep original sin from affecting it.  Asriel's plan involves going directly to the source, the world seen in the Aurora, and destroying the Dust altogether, in effect wiping out original sin.  Lyra learns that Asriel doesn't actually need the alethiometer to accomplish his task, and so keeps the item.

The next day Lyra learns that Asriel has taken her friend Roger captive and is headed north.  He intends to use Roger's energy and that of his daemon to cross over to the Aurora world.  Iorek Byrnison joins her and they follow Asriel's trail before being attacked by a rival witch clan.  Lyra attempts to save Roger from Asriel, but he separates Roger from his daemon and uses the energy released to summon and--this time--control the Aurora.  Mrs. Coulter appears and begs him to stay, but he is adamant in achieving his goal.  He turns and enters the world of the Aurora.  Lyra mourns her friend's death, but then wonders if Dust is really the evil thing Asriel insists it is.  She decides the best course of action is to follow her father into the strange new world and find the source of the Dust before he does.  And so she and her daemon, Pan, leave their world to enter a strange new one.

Already rumors are flying about the second and third books in the series.  The atheist point of view is supposedly expanded on in the two remaining portions of the trilogy.  It is not known if these two books will be translated to the big screen.  In any event, I am working on the review of the second book, "The Subtle Knife", and will post it as soon as I am finished.