Philip Pullman Announces a New Trilogy Set in the His Dark Materials Universe

The first volume — The Book of Dust — is due out in October

Fantasy stalwart Philip Pullman announced last night that he has a new trilogy in the works. Beginning with The Book of Dust — due out in October, 2017 — the as-yet-unnamed series will be a companion to Pullman’s juggernaut His Dark Materials series (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass), which ran between 1995 and 2000, selling nearly 18 million copies worldwide and inspiring a 2007 big-budget adaptation starring Nicole Kidman.

Returning to the authors’s noted multi-dimensional universe (which includes our own strange world), The Book of Dust will reportedly feature former protagonist Lyra Belacqua, albeit as an infant. The title references a particle central to the original series. In an interview with NPR, Pullman said: “what I really wanted to explore in this new work…[is] the nature of Dust, and consciousness, and what it means to be a human being.” Skipping forward, the second and third volumes will take place ten years after the conclusion of The Amber Spyglass, rejoining Lyra as she enters adulthood.

Given the fractured timeline, Pullman has an answer for those curious about what to call the new trilogy in relation to His Dark Materials: “it’s not a sequel, and it’s not a prequel, it’s an equal.”