No, not an early review (I wish!), just a heads up that there is finally a publication date for this, and that it will be 3 books, not just one. I’m not a huge fiction reader, and usually steer well clear of fantasy, but the His Dark Materials trilogy is my favourite book (particularly volumes 1 & 3). Often classified as children’s books, but I read them in my thirties – magical, one-of-a-kind tales by a master storyteller (his Sally Lockheart books are great too). Worth checking out the audiobooks – Pullman has a great speaking voice.
This is being announced as an “equel”, not a sequel or a prequel, but with some of the characters from the original trilogy making an appearance. On top of this, a BBC adaptation of HDM is in the works, and will hopefully eradicate memories of the, at best mediocre, film.
So time to batten down the hatches and try to avoid spoilers for the next 9 months. Any other fans out there, or will this one go the way of my recent, hugely popular, Jamiroquai thread?
https://www.penguin.co.uk/content/dam/prh-consumer/penguin/articles/features/2017/feb/the-book-of-dust-volume-1-final.jpg
http://www.philip-pullman.com/newsitem?newsItemID=21
Yes, I’m a fan of the HDM series, and very much look forward to these new developments. I actually thought the film of TGC wasn’t too shabby at all; Nicole Kidman in particular was very good – she does froideur so well.
This is Good News. I do like having something to look forward to.
I am SO BLOODY excited about this. Philip Pullman is the children’s writer who killed God. To me that makes him basically the greatest writer of all time. I absolutely unconditionally love that man and his work to bits.
Hugely excited. Ever since the announcement I’ve been trying to think who the boy character will be. Maybe one of the Cittagazze kids?
HDM isn’t really kids’ fiction is it? It might’ve started that way but the scope and the ambition of it is immense. (And frankly any kid reading it needs a hell of a vocabulary to cope.) And it’s such a great jumping off point into Milton and Blake and George Herbert and the King James Bible – it’s like a primer on amazing literature and the history of ideas.
I am enormously excited about this too. Most interestng new book of the year. He really is a master storyteller. He writes books that children can enjoy but not children’s books.
About ten years ago, Pulman won the Astrid LIndgren Memorial Award
https://astridlindgrenmemorialaward.wordpress.com/category/previous-winners/philip-pullman-previous-winners/
and spent a week in Stockholm. As well as hearing him give a lecture. I went down to the Science Fiction Bookshop in the Old Town where he was signing books with my family. So my son, who was probably about two at the time got to meet the great man. A moment I thought he might treasure in later life.
Fat chance! He turns 14 tomorrow and thinks that books are about as relevant and interesting as papyrus scrolls or illuminated manuscripts. Sorry Philip! I tried and will continue to try.
Yes, wonderful books and this immediately goes on the “to read” list. Looking forward to the BBC adaptation too, if only for the inevitable Daily Heil hysterics about “killing God”.
I just saw this OP and for a terrible moment I thought Pulman was about to drop something called “The Book of Durst”
Looking forward to these over the next few years!