Golden has also written a large number of tie-
in novels to the television series Buffy the Vampire
Slayer,most of them in collaboration with Nancy
Holder. He is also a very active author of comic
book scripts as well as the young adult suspense se-
ries Body of Evidence. Although the quality of his
work fluctuates considerably, his least interesting
works are still quite readable, and his best are ex-
ceptional. He is a very infrequent short story
writer, but “The Pyre” (2004) is quite good.
The Golden Compass Philip Pullman(1995)
The opening volume of the His Dark Materials tril-
ogy, published in England as Northern Lights,is a
complex and rewarding fantasy novel inspired in
part by John Milton’s Paradise Lost.The protagonist
is Lyra Belacqua, later known as Lyra Silvertongue,
an 11-year-old orphan living in Oxford, England,
although not in our universe. She lives in a reality
where everyone is born with a demon companion,
not an evil demon but an animus, which has a mal-
leable shape at first, growing into its final form as
the human to whom it is bonded matures.
The complex plot picks up very quickly. Lyra
is the ward of Baron Asniel, who arrives at Oxford
on mysterious business having to do with the ap-
parition of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis.
Lyra is instrumental in averting an assassination at-
tempt aimed at her guardian thanks to the aid of
Pantalaimon, her personal demon, more familiarly
known as Pan. She overhears references to the
Dust, a mystery with which the Baron is seriously
concerned. When he is called away, she is left in
the custody of the enigmatic Mrs. Coulter, who
will prove to be one of the most complex charac-
ters in the trilogy.
Lyra feels compelled to act when her best
friend, Roger, becomes yet another in a series of
children who have disappeared under mysterious
circumstances, taken away perhaps by the menac-
ing gobblers, about whom little is known. Her pur-
suit takes her into the Arctic, where she encounters
witchcraft as well as an intelligent race of bears
who are armoring themselves for war. It is a war
that is coming, after all, a war in heaven that is re-
flected on Earth, or in many parallel Earths as we
eventually discover. Lyra also has the advantage of
possessing a magical device that detects falsehoods
and dispenses advice.
The novel is richly textured and is sometimes
criticized as being too subtle and complex for
younger readers, although that does not seem to
have prevented large numbers of them from enjoy-
ing it and its sequels. The subject matter also gener-
ated some controversy because of its portrayal of
elements within the church as being thoughtless or
even outright evil. PULLMANseems to be indicting
no particular faith or institution, however, as much
as opposing the maintenance of any power structure
through the enforced ignorance of those subject to
its will. He also avoids the relentlessly cheerful at-
mosphere found in much lesser young adult fantasy.
His characters experience guilt and deep distress,
some of them die unjustly, and the line of demarca-
tion between good and evil is not always readily ap-
parent. The trilogy continues with THE SUBTLE
KNIFEand concludes with THE AMBER SPYGLASS.Goldstein, Lisa(1953– )
Lisa Goldstein made her impressive writing debut
with a novel, The Red Magician(1982), set in a
version of eastern Europe where magic works. The
setting is a rural Jewish community beset by de-
monic figures and caught up in the conflict be-
tween two wizards, one of whom has had a
precognitive vision of World War II. This clever
and emotionally powerful short novel won the
American Book Award, although it was not as
highly regarded in genre circles. Goldstein’s second
novel, The Dream Years(1985), is, if anything, even
better. A novelist from the 1920s is magically
transported forward through time to the 1960s,
where he participates in the cloistered literary
community of that decade, whose work is inspired
by that of the protagonist’s own time. The barrier
between different time zones begins to erode, at
least for the principle characters, in a novel filled
with dry humor and an excellent description of a
very circumscribed community.
Tourists(1989), expanded from the short story
of the same title, is an almost surrealistic tale about
a family who move to an imaginary foreign country
and discover much about themselves through their
exploration of their new environment. By nowGoldstein, Lisa 137