The Golden Compass Page by Page
Chapter 9 - The Spies



Why are so many character in narration and in dialog refer to each other on a full name basis? Is it this universes version of saying “Mr” or “Mrs” and its being respectful? 

The spy dude that died got shot with an arrow, was it from one of those other gyptian spies that went with them right? Was he a double agent or something? Because his dæmon said something to the effect of all their plans being countered like the enemy forces knew in advance what was going on.

Either that or the Magisterium is using bows and arrows to save money on gunpowder to they can buy expensive soul cutting equipment.

The reason I’m unsure is because they never mention this again, and if one of the spies turned on the other and was working for the Magisterium I’d think the people hearing the story would have made a much bigger deal out of it.

All the technology in the chapter is fun, there’s spy flies and industrial installations and boat engines, and more of Lyra learning the alethiometer.

The spy flies are freaking awesome. I suppose “spirits” in this world are tangible enough that they can interact with matter and that they are engineers out there focused on building spirit related technology.

I’m suddenly reminded of the spy flies in the film adaptation, I remember them actually having the Magisterium emblem engraved in the wing cases. Why would you put your own logo on something that’s meant to be top secret? That would be like an American spy infiltrating a terrorist base wearing a uniform covered in US flags, the whole point of being good spy is NOT to be noticed, not to give away who they working for.

All the imagery of riding the boat away from the UK was really beautiful and engaging.

I believe now that the narration has explained that people aren’t supposed to touch each other’s dæmons that we now know everything we need to know about dæmons for the rest of the series.
I can’t imagine myself ever having kids, but I would name my daughter Sophonax in a second. What an awesome name.

Yay, I finished Part One of the book! :D :D

And more amazing yet, I wrote all this and made only two typos that had to be fixed by spell check.


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