His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

Rating: 5.0

What it's about:
His Dark Materials, a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman, comprises Northern Lights (1995 — released as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife (1997) and The Amber Spyglass (2000). The trilogy follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes against a backdrop of epic events. The story involves fantasy elements such as witches and armored polar bears, but alludes to a broad range of ideas from fields such as physics, philosophy, and theology. Pullman has published further a related short story, "Lyra and the Birds", which appears with accompanying illustrations in the small hardcover book Lyra's Oxford.

Pullman's publishers have primarily marketed the series to young adults, but Pullman also intended to speak to adults. The books have also appeared as a single-volume omnibus in the United Kingdom and in North America, titled His Dark Materials (2007).

My thoughts:
His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantastic fantasy! The story follows Lyra as she travels through different parallel universes. She sees many different places and meets a variety of different characters from armored bears to witches to miniature people. Lyra is on a quest throughout the whole book. Her quest changes from time to time but right from the beginning it is clear that she has a very important mission to carry out. She herself does not know the part she will play in changing not only her own world but every world. The book is so epic in length and depth that when I got to the end, I was not ready to let go of these characters. If you want to lose yourself in a different world and meet fantastic, highly original characters then this is the book for you.