Once Upon a Time in the North by Philip Pullman

This book tells the story of the first meeting between the Texan balloonist Lee Scoresby and the armored bear Iorek Byrnison. They find themselves on the same side of a fight against an oil magnate in Novy Odense. This book illustrates just how much there is to love about both of these characters, and has a good measure of action and adventure thrown in to. I'd recommend it to people familiar with the main His Dark Materials trilogy--it probably wouldn't be the best place to start, though.