I read this book about 8 years ago when it and its sequels were alomst as popular as Harry Potter. The series takes place in an alternate reality where people's souls are not internal. Instead, they take on an animal form or companion called a daemon. The Magesterium, a religious-based institution that has its fingers in all of the world's governments and economies in order to hold sway over society.

The story centers around Lyra Belacqua, an adolescent who lives with her uncle, the Lord Asriel at Oxford's Jordan College. Her world is shattered when a good friend Roger is kidnapped and taken north, where he uncle also goes in order to face an unknown evil that is coming together up there. Asriel has come across evidence of Dust, which is a particulate energy that not only connects people with their daemons, but also seems to tie this world with other alternates.

When Asriel leaves to head to the North, she finds herself with Mrs. Coulter, who seems to have the cold heart of Ann Coulter only even more evil! Out of unhappines with her new life with Mrs. Coulter and her concerns for Roger, Lyra flees north. Roger is only one of many childre who have disappeared. She and her daemon Pan have only a small golden compass to direct her where she needs to go. It is a trip that will take her to the kingdom of the ice bears and a chance to get to know mysterious witches and Gyptians.

This is truly an epic fantasy piece that is filled with wonderful CG graphics and questions about what really makes people good or bad. One of the best things about this movie is that it really does a good job of sticking to the events in the book.

Mrs Coulter is wonderfully played by Nicole Kidman, and the most recent James Bond, Daniel Craig takes on the role of Asriel. There is a strong supporting cast to back them up. The only weird thing is that Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel have WAY more screen time than they do in the book. It does not take things away from the plot to have this change, but it does reflect the big name actors that took on the role.

Some of you might have heard the controversy surrounding the movie when it came out as the Roman Catholic Church did everything but call out a fatwa against it. Somehow the Church has not sorted out that fiction means not real, and that calls for boycotts increase interest in whatever it wants to censor.