The Golden Compass by Philip PullmanMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
A fantastic book.
The Golden Compass presents a world where humans are accompanied by an external manifestation of their souls. They call them daemons, which might bring to mind something sinister, but in this case they are not. They take on the form of animals, linked to the nature of their human companions, shifting between forms with the speed of thought until their humans reach puberty.
The world itself is similar to ours. Basically, it's portrayed as an alternate universe or alternate reality that could exist even now alongside our own. But in this reality we have the daemon companions, flying witches who live hundreds of years, and speaking bears who are fierce and proud. Yet even these fantastic things are presented in a way that they are believable within the world they inhabit.
