黑暗物质之一黄金罗盘(His Dark Materials Ⅰ The Golden Compass)简介：
Some books improve with age--the age of the reader, that is. Such is certainly the case with Philip Pullman's heroic, at times heart-wrenching novel, The Golden Compass, a story ostensibly for children but one perhaps even better appreciated by adults. The protagonist of this complex fantasy is young Lyra Belacqua, a precocious orphan growing up within the precincts of Oxford University. But it quickly becomes clear that Lyra's Oxford is not precisely like our own--nor is her world. For one thing, people there each have a personal daemon, the manifestation of their souls in animal form. For another, hers is a universe in which science, theology, and magic are closely allied:
As for what experimental theology was, Lyra had no more idea than the urchins. She had formed the notion that it was concerned with magic, with the movements of the stars and planets, with tiny particles of matter, but that was guesswork, really. Probably the stars had daemons just as humans did, and experimental theology involved talking to them.
Not that Lyra spends much time worrying about it; what she likes best is "clambering over the College roofs with Roger the kitchen boy who was her particular friend, to spit plum stones on the heads of passing Scholars or to hoot like owls outside a window where a tutorial was going on, or racing through the narrow streets, or stealing apples from the market, or waging war." But Lyra's carefree existence changes forever when she and her daemon, Pantalaimon, first prevent an assassination attempt against her uncle, the powerful Lord Asriel, and then overhear a secret discussion about a mysterious entity known as Dust. Soon she and Pan are swept up in a dangerous game involving disappearing children, a beautiful woman with a golden monkey daemon, a trip to the far north, and a set of allies ranging from "gyptians" to witches to an armor-clad polar bear.
In The Golden Compass, Philip Pullman has written a masterpiece that transcends genre. It is a children's book that will appeal to adults, a fantasy novel that will charm even the most hardened realist. Best of all, the author doesn't speak down to his audience, nor does he pull his punches; there is genuine terror in this book, and heartbreak, betrayal, and loss. There is also love, loyalty, and an abiding morality that infuses the story but never overwhelms it. This is one of those rare novels that one wishes would never end. Fortunately, its sequel, The Subtle Knife, will help put off that inevitability for a while longer.　　这一个不平凡的世界，人的灵魂是一个以动物形式存在的精灵，且人与精灵密不可分，不然，生命将不复存在。
　　13岁得莱拉，长在这个世界的牛津大学，没有家庭之爱，不识富有、强大但已成仇敌的父母，更不知自己身负震撼世界的诅咒；
　　她终日与玩伴及他们的精灵自由自在地嬉闹，长成了一个诡计多端、恣意妄为且谎话连篇的野女孩。
　　然而，可怕的预言无法抗拒，莱拉注定要承担起救世主之责，扮演人类之母夏娃一角：人人畏惧的“尘埃”出现了，饕餮游荡在城市各个角落，玩伴接连莫名失踪，快乐时光彻底完结于密友罗杰的失去，巨大的阴谋正在酝酿之中……
　　于是，在一个惟她可懂、能预知未来的黄金罗盘——真理仪的帮助下，浑然不觉险恶的莱拉决定去寻找被邪恶科学家掠走的孩子们，从此开始了拯救世界的艰难之旅；她朝着未知的北极而去；等待她的，有披甲熊、女巫、天使，悬崖厉鬼，更有能够终结生命的精灵切割机……
　　而领引她步步踏入死亡之地的，竟是其父，自然科学家阿斯里尔勋爵，与其母，狂热的原教旨主义信徒库尔特夫人……