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Northern Lights (His Dark Materials)
 
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Northern Lights (His Dark Materials) (Paperback)

by Philip Pullman (Author)
4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
Price: £4.99 & eligible for Free UK delivery on orders over £5 with Super Saver Delivery. See details and conditions
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Frequently Bought Together

Northern Lights (His Dark Materials) + Junk (Puffin Teenage Fiction) + Tom's Midnight Garden
Price For All Three: £14.27

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Product details

  • Paperback: 448 pages
  • Publisher: Scholastic; classic edition edition (5 Mar 2007)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 043995178X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0439951784
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 12.8 x 3.4 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 6,980 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #5 in  Books > Children's Books > Authors & Illustrators > P > Pullman, Philip
    #26 in  Books > Children's Books > Fiction > Animals
    #67 in  Books > Children's Books > Fiction > Adventure

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Product Description

Product Description
"Without this child, we shall all die." Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford. The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bearsfight. Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world...

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What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Northern Lights (His Dark Materials)
70% buy the item featured on this page:
Northern Lights (His Dark Materials) 4.0 out of 5 stars (25)
£4.99
Subtle Knife, The (Golden Compass) (His Dark Materials)
9% buy
Subtle Knife, The (Golden Compass) (His Dark Materials) 4.7 out of 5 stars (177)
£4.99
The Amber Spyglass. (His Dark Materials): Adult Edition
9% buy
The Amber Spyglass. (His Dark Materials): Adult Edition 4.4 out of 5 stars (344)
£4.79
Northern Lights: Adult Edition (His Dark Materials)
6% buy
Northern Lights: Adult Edition (His Dark Materials) 4.7 out of 5 stars (648)
£3.99
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Customer Reviews

25 Reviews
5 star:
 (12)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (6)
2 star:
 (2)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.0 out of 5 stars (25 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Brilliant in Parts, 29 Dec 2007
By Mr. Michael Lumsden (Cambridge, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This was my second reading and I thoroughly enjoyed it!
The good things about the book are mainly ideas which seem to me to be original and these include:
* Locating the story in a parallel universe, very similar to our own but with fascinating differences;
* The concept of the daemons which each person has and the understanding of human loneliness;
* The meeting with another rational species (the bears) and the recognition of differences and similarities.
The weaknesses of the book in my view include:
* It becomes unbelievable - Lyra has too much success too easily;
* The other characters are under developed and in some cases weak and wishy-washy. Prime example of this is Roger.

There has been some fuss that the book(s) are anti Christian. To my mind this is not the case. Any evil power (what ever name it is given) should be opposed and the fact that in this book the evil power is called the church (or Magisterium) does not make the book anti Christian. Indeed in my opinion there is much that will stimulate the mind to consider religious ideas (for example: the mystery of dust; the battle between good and evil; the partial (humble) knowledge of the witches; the abuse of power; the importance of protecting the weak and vulnerable).
Of course there is a danger that the Church today (in our world) will act in a similar way (as it may have done in the past). So the book comes as a powerful warning to the Church that it must never use and abuse power in pursuit of its goals. Christians should welcome this book!
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Not really for grown-ups, 16 Jun 2008
By Lendrick (London) - See all my reviews
His Dark Materials is being touted as being 'for all ages', having made my way through 'Northern Lights' this 40 something has to disagree. My 10 year old daughter loved it, and I'm sure it is a good read for that age group.

However, I found myself slightly bored and irritated with it. Northern Lights is just too simplistic to stand up as a novel for grown-ups. The basic problem is that the world Lyra lives in never fully comes to life. We only get told what is needed for the plot, there isn't enough background detail to turn a sketch into something more substantial. Similarly the supporting characters are one dimensional archetypes rather than fully developed individuals.

All of which leaves a lot to be delivered by Lyra and the plot. I didn't really believe in Lyra - everything comes just a little to easily to her, and her tendency to drop into a mockney accent for no apparent reason didn't help.

The plot starts intriguingly but after a slightly dull middle turns into a series of grandstand action events, perhaps to take the readers mind off the lack of coherence in the story. Finally we get a series of lengthy and dull expositions from Lord Asriel & Mrs Coulter to try and make some sense of what has gone before. To be fair the ending does have sufficient `hook' to make we slightly curious about what happens next, but I won't be rushing to find out.

All in all judged as an adult book this is distinctly average steampunk/fantasy not worthy of the plaudits it has received.
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3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars Not so good, 18 Nov 2008
By Fredward Beasley (West of Ireland) - See all my reviews
I found this book rather disappointing and am quite baffled as to the reasons for its immense popularity. The characterisation is weak, the dialogue irritating, the alternate world is ours, basically, with a few arbitrary tweaks, and things with slightly different names(e.g. gypsies are "gyptians", Norway is "Norroway", or something). I only became interested in the last 50-60 pages as the allegorical element of the story became clear, somewhat along the lines of C.S. Lewis' Narnia books. But the few interesting ideas towards the end are not enough to justify this poorly-written and none-too-imaginative book, and I won't be reading the sequels.

That said, I tend not to like flavour of the month-type books, and sometimes I suspect that I only read them to pooh-pooh them, as it were. Certainly, many others appear to have derived great pleasure from this book and who am I to argue with the opinion of the great masses? It surprises me that children enjoy this book as it is quite wordy, dry, utterly humourless and lacking in vivid description, but apparently they do, so I'll say no more about it.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Such A Special Book
I found His Dark Materials triology to be more than just good, infact I'm finding it difficult to put into words just how precious they are. Read more
Published 13 days ago by K. J. Dean

5.0 out of 5 stars I'd Give This Infinite Stars if I Could
I could talk about this until I wore my fingers down to the bone. But instead, I will keep it simple. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Birdy

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't light up my day
A lot has been made of this series' atheistic stance, and as a born-again Christian I took it on prepared to be challenged and maybe frustrated. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Binro The Heretic

3.0 out of 5 stars Cold War?
"His Dark Materials" is one of those works that you know quite a bit about even before you start reading. Read more
Published 2 months ago by hw

4.0 out of 5 stars Northern Lights
This book is a story about a girl called Lyra who lives in Jordan College. She has a daemon, a part of her soul in amimal form , called Pantalamon and she is rather naughty,... Read more
Published 3 months ago by Bookworm007

4.0 out of 5 stars Wonderfully Magical!
I thought this was an amazing book, not just for kids but adults also.

I think the concept Pullman has created is unique and he manages to pull it off well in this... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Catrin Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars Northern Delights
This book is just superb. The fantasy and science are beautifully interlinked, while the setting is made familiar by the use of towns, countries and landscapes that we live in... Read more
Published 8 months ago by Ali Cazalzabar

5.0 out of 5 stars Dazzling colours...
A young and independent girl called Lyra is forced into adventure when her close friend is kidnapped. Read more
Published 10 months ago by G. Munday

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the all-time greats
I truly believe that in years to come, this will be regarded as one of the great children's classics, right up at the top with Alice in Wonderland.
Published 11 months ago by booksetc

4.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Read
I believe, from a fifteen year-old girl's point of view (this is my mother's account), that this book was reasonably exquisite. Read more
Published 13 months ago by Ms. L. Hart

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