HIS DARK MATERIALS IS NOW AN HBO ORIGINAL SERIES STARRING DAFNE KEEN, RUTH WILSON, JAMES McAVOY, AND LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA!
The spellbinding sequel to The Golden Compass, the modern fantasy classic that Entertainment Weekly named an "All-Time Greatest Novel" and Newsweek hailed as a "Top 100 Book of All Time," continues the epic adventure, catapulting readers between worlds, and toward a devastating discovery.
Lost in a new world, Lyra finds Will—a boy on the run, a murderer—a worthy and welcome ally. For this is a world where soul-eating Specters stalk the streets and witches share the skies with troops of angels.
Each is searching—Lyra for the meaning of Dark Matter, Will for his missing father—but what they find instead is a deadly secret, a knife of untold power. And neither Lyra nor Will suspects how tightly their lives, their loves, their destinies are bound together...until they are split apart. A #1 New York Times Bestseller
Published in 40 Countries
“Just as quick-moving and unputdownable as The Golden Compass. . . . The mysteries deepen and the wonders grow even more extravagant.” —The Washington Post
“Pullman’s imagination soars . . . A literary rollercoaster ride you won’t want to miss.”—The Boston Globe
“The story gallops with ferocious momentum . . . Devilishly inventive.” —The New York Times Book Review
Don't miss Philip Pullman's epic new trilogy set in the world of His Dark Materials! ** THE BOOK OF DUST ** La Belle Sauvage The Secret Commonwealth
In the second book in the trilogy, Lyra and Will spend a lot of time in Cittagazze, a transitory world between all other worlds. This book itself feels like a transition: slow to start, heavy on action in the second half which leaves a lot of loose threads for the final instalment. It's rich in imagination, delightful characters, and emotion. (I will always shed a tear at Lee Scoresby's death.) Here we get more development of some of the background characters we met in The Golden Compass. There's a particular focus on the witches, and Pullman positions them as naturally and perpetually opposed to the Church, echoing the religious persecution of witches throughout history. Because we are now building to a battle that implicates all of humanity, the focus broadens: it is not merely Lyra's story, or even Lyra and Will's. The perspectives of the other characters are interesting and help flesh out the world(s) of the novels, but sometimes I was a bit sorry to leave Lyra and Will. Having read this book several times, none of the twists were new to me this time around, but they are still poignant and satisfying. Not the best book in the series, but necessary and still brilliant.
