Lyra Belacqua is the protagonist of Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials trilogy. She grows up running wild through the halls and rooftops of Jordan College in a version of Oxford that exists in a parallel world. Tough, clever, and a natural liar, Lyra is accompanied everywhere by her daemon Pantalaimon, the external expression of her soul in animal form.
When Lyra learns that children are being kidnapped and taken to the far north, she sets out on a rescue mission that grows into something far larger. Armed with the alethiometer, a truth-telling device she has a natural gift for reading, Lyra travels between worlds and becomes central to a conflict involving the very nature of consciousness and free will. She reappears as a young adult in Pullman’s follow-up Book of Dust series.
Reading Order
See the complete His Dark Materials reading order for all books in the series.