Northern Lights, the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy, is the story of an alternate Oxford and a girl, Lyra, who becomes embroiled in a plot of divine proportions. As a foundling nurtured by the scholars of Jordan College and occasionally visited by her uncle, Lord Asriel, Lyra is something of a terror in Oxford, stubbornly refusing to knuckle down to her studies in favour of childish escapades with the kitchen boy, Roger, and leading the feuds against the local Gyptian families.
In this world, it is immediately apparent to the reader that humans have daemons ascribed to them; these are in essence their souls, but take on animal forms. Children's daemons change shape but at puberty the daemon's shape becomes fixed. Concepts such as daemons are typical of Pullman's superb inventive skills - later on in the book we meet Armoured Bears and nations of witches, as well as whole communities of Gyptian families that navigate the waterways of Britain. All of these elements have a child-like simplicity and at the same time a tremendous richness and strength. The world itself feels Victorian in nature, but at the same time there are references to widescale used of electricity (anbaric energy) and atomic weapons, as well as a number of technological advances that would be better placed towards the end of this century. The way in which Pullman merges the nineteenth-century atmosphere with the later technologies is simply charming.
The central plot concerns a mysterious sub-atomic particle named Dust. It becomes apparent to the reader that children's daemons do not attract Dust but once fixed, the adult daemons begin to attract the particles. The plot that surrounds Dust is theological in nature, and although the concepts surrounding Dust are quite complex, they are told with elegant simplicity. This is a book for children, after all. Pullman manages to illustrate to the reader the idiosyncracies, political changes and social movements in his fictional Oxford with the same aplomb that recounted the 19th century of his Sally Lockheart series.
This book is superb; I cannot recommend it too highly for both teens and adults. Possibly some readers may find the monologues which serve as the scene-setting pieces a trifle forced, but I believe that they only add to the charm and the atmosphere of the story. This book is not only conceptually rich, it is also a ripping yarn full of action and colourful characters that never act without motive and are emotionally and morally well-realised, none more so than Lyra herself. One of the few books that really does deserve that over-used accolade "impossible to put down".
