His Dark Materials

His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels by English author Philip Pullman and is composed of the books The Golden Compass (U.S.) or Northern Lights (U.K.), The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass. Currently, it is being adapted into a television series by HBO, premiering in November of 2019. The trilogy is an allegory similar to Milton's Paradise Lost, consisting of themes related to theology, metaphysics, and power. The events of the story start in a universe similar to our own, though with several key differences. In this universe, everyone's conscience exists as a physical manifestation called daemons.

This coming-of-age story follows protagonist, Lyra Belacqua, and her daemon Pantalaimon as they use an alethiometer to reveal the secret connection between a group of child kidnappers called Gobblers and a mysterious phenomenon that the men of Jordan College in Oxford call dust. In her attempt to find her missing friend and to escape the control of the devious Mrs. Coulter, Lyra will follow the man she knows as Lord Asriel all the way to the artic where he is attempting to open a passage between their universe and the shimmering city he has seen through the aurora borealis. On her adventure, Lyra must enlist the help of the Gyptians, a witch named Serafina Pekala, and an armored bear named Iorek Byrnison. Lyra eventually finds herself moving between universes alongside Will Parry, a boy she meets in the city beyond the aurora where people do not have daemons. The two must work together to regenerate the balance between life and death.