His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman. I'm at the third book for the trilogy. Don't be discouraged by the sucky movie, it's quite good. How they could make a bad movie out of a story with armored bears fighting bloody battles is beyond me...
Be warned that it might offend your religious sensibilities (the first one not so much (it's in a parallel universe so, so what if they have a sucky Church?) but the other two directly criticize God).
If you won't be offended, it's a good read.