This is the first in a trilogy in which a new universe has been created. A world when daemons swoop and scuttle along the streets of Oxford and London, where the mysterious dust swirls invisibly through the air, and where one child knows the secrets which most adults would kill for.

In this first part of the His Dark Materials trilogy, Lyra's friend Roger disappears. She and her daemon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him. Their quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where a team of scientists are conducting unspeakably horrible experiments.

The Subtle Knife : His Dark Materials 2

The second book in the 'His Dark Materials' trilogy.

Will is twelve years old and has just killed a man. Determined to discover the truth about his father's disappearance, he steps through a window into another world. There he meets a girl called Lyra who, like himself, is on a mission. But Citagazza is an unsettling place, and in Torre Delgi lurks Citagazza's most important secret - an object which people from many worlds would kill to possess.

Will is the bearer of the knife. Now, accompanied by angels, his task is to delivery that powerful, dangerous weapon to Lord Asriel - by the command of his dying father. But who can he go looking for Lord Asriel, when Lyra is gone? Only with her help can be fathom the myriad plots and intrigues that beset him. The two great powers of the many worlds are lining up for war, and Will must find Lyra, for together they are on their way to battle, an inevitable journey that will even take them to the world of the dead…