Author: Phillip Pullman
Why I read it: A friend recommended it
Summary (from Goodreads) Here lives an orphaned ward named Lyra Belacqua, whose carefree life among the scholars at Oxford's Jordan College is shattered by the arrival of two powerful visitors. First, her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, appears with evidence of mystery and danger in the far North, including photographs of a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and the dim outline of a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis that he suspects is part of an alternate universe. He leaves Lyra in the care of Mrs. Coulter, an enigmatic scholar and explorer who offers to give Lyra the attention her uncle has long refused her. In this multilayered narrative, however, nothing is as it seems. Lyra sets out for the top of the world in search of her kidnapped playmate, Roger, bearing a rare truth-telling instrument, the compass of the title. All around her children are disappearing—victims of so-called "Gobblers"—and being used as subjects in terrible experiments that separate humans from their daemons, creatures that reflect each person's inner being. And somehow, both Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter are involved.
Opinion: Religious views aside, His Dark Material's tells a compelling adventure story about a young girl struggling to change the fate of a darkening world. Pullman is great at taking classic tropes and expectations and turning them on their heads to create something new and engaging. It is certainly one of the most unique, thoroughly thought out alternative worlds of recent times.
Ratings
Female Representation: 5 (Both the protagonist and the antagonist are strong females who drive the story)
Writing Style: 3 (I had no complaints, but nothing stood out as exceptional)
Plot: 4 (It's something that's never been done before. It's imaginative, thrilling, and thought-provoking with heroes you can't help but love and villains you love to hate.)
Overall: 4
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