Left to my own preferences, I would read nothing but good mysteries, historical fiction, and nonfiction. Being a member of the Degrummond Book Group often takes me out of my comfort zone (also sometimes known as a rut). The pick for this month was The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman.
I was not far into the reading before I recalled conversations that had no place for me with my SCBWI critique group about world-building. I gathered from listening that one of the most important parts of books with fantastical elements is world-building and the consistency of the rules of that world. On that scale, this book qualifies well with humans having daemons as crucial to their well-being both physically and mentally, bears with human thoughts and feelings, witches, and gyptians (water gypsies). The twelve-year-old Lyra Belacqua tackles the evil experiments based on religious themes with recurring battles and dangerous situations. Naturally, since this is a series, the book leaves Lyra heading into the next adventure. The book is well written and good of its kind so those who like books from other worlds will enjoy it. I will leave Kyra to enjoy her next adventure without me.
I could see a movie in my head as I read, but since that is also not the kind of movies that I look for, I had to check to see they had made one. My Google search turned up bad reviews of the movie with no sequels for the other books in the series. I was a bit disappointed since the book seemed to lend itself to the screen.
Now that I’m finished with The Golden Compass, which I have to admit kept me turning pages and was not a bad read, I am moving back to my comfort zone (AKA rut) with the next selection by the Degrummond Book Group, Halfway to the Sky by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley, who has already established herself with me as one of the absolute best writers of historical fiction. In a bit of serendipity, with this coronavirus we are meeting via Zoom so even if you are out of the area, you might like to join us.