Books like Northern Lights by Philip Pullman

In *Northern Lights*, Philip Pullman launches readers into a richly imagined world where an orphaned scholar named Lyra Belacqua is drawn from her life at Oxford’s Jordan College into a perilous quest. Her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, introduces her to a mysterious celestial phenomenon called Dust and hints at a city suspended in the Aurora Borealis, suggesting an alternate universe. Trusting the enigmatic explorer Mrs. Coulter, Lyra sets out to the top of the world to find her kidnapped friend Roger, equipped with a truth-telling compass. Along the way she encounters children disappearing as "Gobblers" and subjected to experiments that separate humans from their daemons—spirits reflecting one’s inner self. The narrative weaves adventure, danger, and the fragile link between humanity and its unseen companion, as Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter’s secrets are gradually revealed.

First publish date: October 31, 1999