The Golden Compass

I had not read Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass before it was made into a movie. I liked the movie, but was still confused by a few aspects of the story. When I was told by two different people that the audio version of the book was outstanding, I thought I would give it a listen. The book is narrated by a full cast and is absolutely outstanding. (Although they should have used Ian McKellen as the voice of Iorek Byrnison, as they did in the movie.) I'm not going to even try to sum up the story here-there is just too much going on. But Wikipedia has a good summary, if you aren't familiar with the story. For a children's book, the story is complex, with many characters and complicated concepts (I'm still confused about Dust). This is a wonderful story to listen to, and something the whole family can enjoy during a long car ride.