When Lyra’s friend Roger disappears, she and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, determine to find him.

The ensuing quest leads them to the bleak splendour of the North, where armoured bears rule the ice and witch-queens fly through the frozen skies – and where a team of scientists is conducting experiments too horrible to be spoken about.

Lyra overcomes these strange terrors, only to find something yet more perilous waiting for her – something with consequences which may even reach beyond the Northern Lights…

I purchased a copy of this book for my own reading.

In a break from dystopian reading, I went for another book and series that I haven’t read. I watched the TV series several years ago and thoroughly enjoyed it. It had some impressive casting, none more so than that of Ruth Wilson as Mrs Coulter, so when I discovered the audiobook version read by her, I had to give it a go.

It follows orphaned Lyra, who lives at Oxford University in an alternate universe. She doesn’t know her parents, and her uncle is an intrepid explorer who can’t take on a child. When the enigmatic, mysterious Mrs Coulter offers one day to take her in, she prepares to embark on a new, better life. She uncovers a plot that links to children and their animal daemons and a mysterious substance known as dust. As children are abducted and experimented on in a secret facility up in the arctic region. What transpires is a race against time to close down this secretive organisation and rescue the children imprisoned there.

I thoroughly enjoyed the TV series which explored all of the books in the series, and some of the companion works, so I was really pleased to discover that it had faithfully followed the book. The narration from Ruth Wilson was brilliant. I’ll certainly be adding the rest of the series to my list!

My rating: