His Dark Materials

His Dark Materials

Cover of Scholastic collected edition, 2008
Northern Lights The Subtle Knife The Amber Spyglass
Author	Philip Pullman
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre	Science Fantasy High fantasy
Publisher	Scholastic
Published	1995–2000
Media type	Print (hardback & paperback)

His Dark Materials is an epic trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of Northern Lights (1995, published as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife (1997), and The Amber Spyglass (2000). It follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes. The three novels have won a number of awards, most notably the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year prize, won by The Amber Spyglass. Northern Lights won the Carnegie Medal for children's fiction in the UK in 1995. The trilogy took third place in the BBC's Big Read poll in 2003.

The fantasy elements include witches and armoured polar bears, but the trilogy also alludes to ideas from physics, philosophy and theology. The trilogy functions in part as a retelling and inversion of John Milton's epic Paradise Lost, with Pullman commending humanity for what Milton saw as its most tragic failing, original sin. The series has drawn criticism for its negative portrayal of Christianity and religion in general.

Pullman's publishers have primarily marketed the series to young adults, but Pullman also intended to speak to both older children and adults. North American printings of The Amber Spyglass have censored passages describing Lyra's incipient sexuality.