Author Philip Pullman Announces Follow-Up Trilogy to His Dark Materials
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His Dark Materials fans, rejoice!
Author Philip Pullman announced yesterday that his massive popular series His Dark Materials will be gaining a companion trilogy. The new series will be called The Book of Dust, and the first book in the series will be published on Oct. 19. It is currently available for preorder on Amazon for $22.99.
The best-selling His Dark Materials fantasy series was published between 1995 and 2000, and has sold more than 17.5 million copies. The three volumes in the series, The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, occurred between several parallel universes and starred the character Lyra Belacqua, an intelligent and resourceful young girl. Pullman said that in The Book of Dust trilogy, Lyra will return as a major character, but in new ways. In an interview with NPR, Pullman explained:
… the first book is set roughly ten years before the action of His Dark Materials. And the second book and subsequent books … are set ten years after it. So in the first one, Lyra is only a baby of about six months. So she’s not able to do very much, but she’s certainly the focus of intense activity on the part of the main protagonists. In the second book she will be twenty years old, she’ll be an adult …
The author also said he wants readers to view the forthcoming trilogy as a companion to His Dark Materials: “It’s not a sequel, and it’s not a prequel, it’s an equal.” It feels like a long ways till Oct. 19, but Pullman fans have been waiting 17 years for this—they shouldn’t have much trouble waiting another eight months.
Click here to read more about the possibility of a His Dark Materials television series, and watch a trailer for the movie version of The Golden Compass below.