His Dark Materials
A girl, an alethiometer, and a soul that walks beside her as an animal - then the argument gets much larger.
Pullman’s trilogy, collecting Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass. Lyra Belacqua grows up half-wild in an Oxford where every person’s soul walks beside them as an animal daemon, and follows a trail of stolen children north into a plot that reaches across worlds and ends by restaging the Fall. Written for children and argued with by adults ever since.
Recommended by 1 Person
Katherine Arden
When I read the series I was younger, and like many people, I fell in love with that world, with Lyra and with the life in it; and with the idea that you could be born with an animal companion that is you, but also is not you.
Interview · June 2026
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