December 5th- Northern Lights
This is part of the Christmas Book Advent Calender, where we post a new Christmas/winter book recommendation every day leading up to Christmas. More info can be found here…
December 4th- A Christmas Carol recommended by Vinr of ThirstforFiction
Onto the 5th day in our Christmas Book Advent Calender series, we bring you one of the most controversial but wonderful fantasy series- His Dark Materials, written by Philip Pullman. The first novel, Northern Lights, is inexplicably snowy, set in Svalbard where permafrosts rule, this half steampunk epic fantasy has become one of the most famous novels in the last 15 years.
If you can look past the obvious church bashing that occurs within its pages, Northern Lights is a true classic, stuffed full with wonderful mythology and culture. Even for adults, His Dark Materials make for wonderful reading material, and with a name like the Northern Lights, what couldn’t be more snowy?
Set in a parrallel universe where people’s souls live outside the body in animal like creatures called daemons, Lyra Belacqua lives in Oxford, carefree and more than a little rebellious…but that is all about to change. Taken on a rollercoaster journey to the Arctic, she experiences the might of the Panserbjorne- the legendary ice-bears, and sets her eyes on the fabled witch-clans. But there is something deeper at work- something that has been started by her parents and cannot be prevented. Something that will change their world in radical ways…something to do with dust…
“Without this child, we shall all die.” Lyra Belacqua and her animal daemon live half-wild and carefree among scholars of Jordan College, Oxford. The destiny that awaits her will take her to the frozen lands of the Arctic, where witch-clans reign and ice-bearsfight. Her extraordinary journey will have immeasurable consequences far beyond her own world…
