10 Things We Desperately Want to See in Philip Pullman’s Follow-Up toHis Dark Materials

With theannouncementthat the long - awaited follow - up to His Dark Materials will be hitting bookshelves this October , we ’ve dredged up every buried thought about Philip Pullman ’s universe we ’ve kept inside for 17 years . Now we ’re let loose with some thoughts about everything we that think should be in the new trilogy .

Note : These books are 17 years quondam now , but still , be aware that some secret plan points are talk over in depth .

1) The Aftermath of The Amber Spyglass

The Amber Spyglass terminate with essentially God dying , and his regent tumbling into an abyss . That ’s … not a humble thing to take with . And yet , in Lyra ’s Oxford , set two year after that book , it does n’t seem like Lyra ’s world has been nearly stir up by this event as it should have been . Were all of Lyra ’s adventures hushed up ? Because the ruling church of Lyra ’s world entered in a giant war and they basically lose , so I feel like there should be some vast repercussions for that .

2) Mrs. Coulter and Lord Asriel

The completely twisted relationship between Lyra ’s parent was always a compelling part of His Dark Materials . Pullman says that he “ discovered a long write up that set out when she was a baby and will end when she ’s grown up , ” and I am trust that the part where she was a baby will cover a lot more of her parents , because we only know what happened to them through a secondhand explanation . really seeing them in that other level would enrich the original trilogy .

3) The Experiments

Mrs. Coulter was a woman of brilliance and ambitiousness . And one of the ways she bring in mogul in Lyra ’s globe was through the experiments she acquit on Dust , children , and their connection to their daemons . It ’s such a dark way of life to go that I ’m curious — less about Mrs. Coulter , but more about the people in Lyra ’s world that sanctioned the experiments and what led up to them .

4) Will and Lyra

The Amber Spyglass end by separate Will and Lyra to their several worlds , but with them each call to go to their equivalent of Oxford ’s Botanic Garden and sit on a bench so they could , sort of , be together . At the clock time , this bittersweet ending for these two characters was a revelation , since every other YA book I ’d read up to that item went with pretty much unambiguous happy endings for the main couple . But in any follow - up , we ’re dying to see something further between these two .

5) Lyra and the Alethiometer

When we left Lyra , she had lost her power to learn the alethiometer through inherent aptitude , and was stuck learn to interpret it the way everyone else did : through work and use of goods and services of reference books to decode what the symbols stand for in that specific spot . Lyra ’s use of the alethiometer was a vital part of the Good Book and an important part of her identity , so I ’m urgently curious about how she deals with having to re - learn to do something she used to do so easy .

6) Panserbjørn

I could say something deep about want to be intimate how their companionship is doing in the wake of everything — or even ask to see thing before and after Iofur ’s reign — but let ’s be material : I just want to see more of the panserbjørn , the Viking - like diametrical bear who live in the North . We all hump the panserbjørn .

7) Paradise Regained (and Other Assorted Poetry)

Pullman hassaidthat His Dark Materials is a retelling of John Milton ’s epic poem Paradise Lost . Except , of track , Pullman ’s variant depicts the “ surrender ” as a positive thing for humanity . raise up , identify sex , advance knowledge are all “ benefits ” to the “ fall . ” Given that influence , I question if Milton ’s other work will be alluded to in Book of Dust . Paradise Regained retells the enticement of Christ , and the obvious allegory would be to put Lyra in the Christ role , but mayhap she ’s take up the role of Satan from her father .

Pullman has stated that William Blake — whose exceedingly vivacious vision clearly did have some shock on the other books — mold the new book a lot . “ The story I ’m telling in this book of account is more about in terms of William Blake ’s vision , his idea of a fiercely reductive way of take care thing : it ’s good or wrong ; it ’s black or clean , ” he said . carry a destiny of shades of gray .

8) The Mulefa and the Shades

Only one portal between worlds remains unfastened at the end of His Dark Materials . It link the earth of the mulefa — gravid pachyderm - like brute who use the come seedcase of their cosmos ’s trees as wheels they attach to themselves — to the world of the beat . This fulfills their promise to help the shades pull up stakes the human beings of the stagnant . But it also means the mulefa have a bunch of dark glasses thread their world now . What does a reality where the dead and thinking , tool - using animals coexist look like ? Is it eerie , or do the mulefa just get used to it very quickly ?

9) Other Worlds

We ’re rum about Pullman ’s universe in general . His new trilogy announcement advert a son going to a new humanity . take on that ’s not a metaphor , we should be get more multiverse risky venture . Will and Lyra ’s world seem pretty classical parallel universes — similar , but dissimilar . Cittàgazze has other elements that tie it to those places . But the mulefa world is completely unlike . The land of the dead is also not really a parallel chronicle planet . So do alternate universes , different realms , and wholly different planets just stack up all willy - nilly ? I ’m dying to know .

10) Daemons

It ’s kind of implied in His Dark Materials that everyone in all the humans have them , but that not everyone can see them . That ’s why Will has one , and why Mary superintend to see one . Pullman said he ’s going to drop time on daemons in this raw rule book and we have questions . Lyra ’s world is the only one we ’ve see where they ’re seeable , why is that ? The mulefa can see debris ; do they just not have daemons because they ’re animals ? And why do human have them , but other thinking and talk others do n’t ? We do get laid , from The Golden Compass , that dust creates the link between multitude and their daemons . So if we ’re getting an probe into dust , we should be pay off some interesting revelation about daemons , too .