His Dark Materials Trilogy by Phillip Pullman
This Pullman trilogy is technically for children, but as recent books such as Harry Potter have shown us, the children’s section doesn’t mean it is childish writing. While anyone can appreciate the story in these books, I think only an adult can truly appreciate what is happening on so many levels and the subtle nudges towards our own world that Pullman litters throughout the book.
The story itself is about a young girl growing up privileged in a world where each person has their own daemon (literally their soul), these daemon take the from of animals and are a persons constant companion their entire lives until eventually they both die. As with all stories something changes and the heroine is thrust into a “save the world” role which she was previously unprepared for. As a result we the reader are able to follow her through her trials and tribulations meeting creatures not of this world, but without taking the typical fantasy route and giving the reader elves and dwarfs. As the stories progress we meat witches, armored bears, angels, gypsies and many more beings that all come together to protect their way of life.
As we get to the later books in the series we realize that their are many worlds and that all of these different worlds must join together to fight the repression of The Authority, quite literally God. I could continue at length but doing so would ruin the story, but all in all I was very impressed with the story and it is a worthwhile read for anyone who wants serious literature in a very entertaining format.