His Dark Materials (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass) by Philip Pullman
This series was set in a wonderful fantasy world full of intriguing characters, adventures, self-discovery and pure magic. I didn’t want the story to end and it is now definitely one of my favorite series to date.
In "The Golden Compass”, we meet Lyra, a headstrong girl that has a way of lying and searching for adventures. Along with Lyra is her daemon, Pantalaimon, or Pan. I loved the world building and explanations regarding the daemons that everyone has in this world, animals that are an external physical manifestation of a person’s inner-self or soul and can speak. Daemons can keep changing their animal form when their person is a child, but has a fixed form when they are adults. This story begins as a rescue mission but Lyra becomes involved with a search for so much more. It is wonderfully written and there are multiple plot turns that kept you engaged.
The second installment, “The Subtle Knife” introduces a new character, Will, in our own modern world. This was a great addition as Will and Lyra learn to trust each other on their journeys and develop a tentative truce as Will is outed to Lyra as a murderer. There are new dark twists in this book and Will and Lyra have a lot of adventures, not all of them positive. Once again, this book was wonderfully written and exciting the whole way through.
The final novel of the series, “The Amber Spyglass”, has Lyra and Will fighting together to save the world. It is an epic fight of good versus evil but also a question of who is truly good or evil and what makes them bear that title? This ending was wonderful and heartbreaking and just made the series an overall amazing story.