The Golden Compass Author:Philip Pullman The Golden Compass forms the first part of a story in three volumes. The first volume is set in a world like ours, but different in many ways. In The Golden Compass, readers meet for the first time 11-year-old Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Jordan College in Oxford, England. It quickly becomes clear that L... more »yra's Oxford is not precisely like our own - nor is her world. In Lyra's world, everyone has a personal d?mon, a lifelong animal familiar. This is a world in which science, theology and magic are closely intertwined.« less