First off, I can't believe there are so mlittle people here who have actually read His Dark Materials.

It's a brilliant, brilliant piece of fantasy literature. It's a bit more mature and complex than Harry Potter and I would almost say more enjoyable. It's clearly not a young children's book (which again I believe is part of the charm of Harry Potter however old you are) as testified maybe most loudly by the ending. Like J. K. Rowling Pullman combines elements from mythology and folklore in his books but the references are more subtle and less pronounced. I could go on and on about how great I think these books are but I'll just finish off with saying that if you liked Harry Potter, you will enjoy HDM. They might not become your favorite books, but you will enjoy them.
sea-plunder wrote:northern lights
subtle knife
the amber spyglass
And yeah, about this. The first book is titled "Northern Lights" only in the UK, everywhere else (at least according to my knowledge) it's called "The Golden Compass" (which at least in my opinion works much better with the other names).
* Starry *