The books take place in a world not so unlike our own, except that it’s a bit more magic and steampunk. The plot of His Dark Materials is driven by the long-running conflict between Pullman’s heroine, a bold, lithely intelligent 11-year-old named Lyra, and the Magisterium, an authoritarian incarnation of Christianity. At the same time, she’s pursuing her ever-receding parents, the brilliant, amoral Lord Asriel and the delectably cruel Mrs. Coulter. Lyra, whom we first meet growing up semi-feral at the fictional Jordan College, Oxford, has a dæmon, as does every other human being in the Lyraverse: a talking animal companion/alter ego. Lyra also has the ability to read an alethiometer, a marvelous magical device—the titular compass—that can answer any question, but only by way of arcane symbols.