Five best fantasy novels not just for the young

Salman Rushdie's most recent novel is Luka and the Fire of Life.

He named a five best list of fantasy novels not just for the young. One entry on the list:

The Golden Compass
by Philip Pullman (1995)

Any book that begins with the death of God is OK by me. I love Philip Pullman's fabulist world of familiar spirits, "daemons" and magic "dust," his journey from a notably weird Oxford to flying cowboys, Nordic witches and giant, warrior polar bears. And under all the playfulness is a vision of a secular-humanist universe that has captured the imaginations of adult readers as well as youthful ones. This is an age polluted by much spiritualist and "holy" mumbo-jumbo and easy fanaticism; "The Golden Compass" and the rest of Pullman's "Dark Materials" trilogy are a powerful counterweight to all that claptrap and have the added benefit of really being fun to read.

Read about the other books on the list.

Salman Rushdie's The Satanic Verses is among Christopher Hitchens' six best books, Atul Gawande's favorite books, Karl O. Knausgaard's top ten angel books, and Diarmaid MacCulloch's five best books about blasphemy.

--Marshal Zeringue