The Northern Lights

Philip Pullman (author & narrator)

Chivers Press Ltd: 2000

ISBN: 1855491923

Note: extension concepts, vocabulary

Genres: adventure, fantasy

Issues: class, corruption, friendship, loyalty, perceptions, power, trust

Unabridged: 9CDs (10hrs 49mins). Narrated by Philip Pullman, read by a full cast.

Winner: Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Award.

The Northern Lights is the first of three novels in the His Dark Materials trilogy. Unlike many series, readers will find that the later novels are virtually incomprehensible without the essential background to characters, politics and setting that is laid down in this first book.

Set in a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar, readers are introduced to Lyra Belaqua, an intelligent, curious and half-wild eleven-year-old girl who lives in Jordan College and rules the streets of Oxford. When children start disappearing, one of them her friend Roger, the kitchen-boy, Lyra starts paying a little more attention to the discussions of the adults around her. She soon hears about the mysterious Dust - some kind of elementary particle that teases the intellects of the scholars but is a source of great fear to the Church.

Lyra and her daemon, Pantalaimon, are soon caught up on a dangerous quest to rescue the stolen children from Bolvangar, a scientific facility in the icy wastes of the North. Their adventures introduce them to many strange and fearsome friends and foes - from the mighty armoured bears to the long-lived witches. Can it be true that there are other worlds beyond the veil of the Northern Lights? And if it is possible to reach them, what is Lyra's role in this great adventure?

Complex characters, layers of meaning and numerous intertextual references - both direct and implied - to religious and spiritual texts, myths, and the lives of famous scientists and explorers, make this a truly remarkable and most absorbing novel.

Hearing it narrated by the author and a cast of very appropriate voices simply enriches the experience. Philip Pullman is not only an outstanding writer, he is a good reader - his slightly husky tones are very suitable for the narrative voice, which by its function must be both expressive and comparatively neutral. Joanna Wyatt's interpretation of Lyra is excellent, especially as her character develops from a cheeky, thoughtless child of Oxford into a young adventuress challenged by the danger and strangeness of the world through which she is journeying. Sean Barrett's gives Lord Asriel a rich, powerful voice but maintains the necessary harsh, impatient edge that characterises the man. Barrett also voices Iorek Byrnison, another major character, but remarkably the doubling is not noticeable here or with any readers of multiple characters.

Alison Dowling's reading of Mrs Coulter that is the outstanding performance, however. Such a complex, manipulative, many-faced character requires a very subtle reading. Dowling produces the light, clear musical ripple that Mrs Coulter uses to charm children and bedazzle adults, but can change it mid-sentence to the icy, flat tone of power and command that is her true nature. This is very much an ensemble piece, however, and the dynamic and emotional range of interactions between characters is carefully directed to maintain a clear storyline and ensure that the depth of the narrative is maintained.

Highly recommended.