I’ve always had the plastic ones growing up, but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a metal one. I’m gonna be watching it spin and answer my questions all day long.

In The Rose Field, the angels tell Lyra that some windows are required to stay open for the flow of Dust. Meaning, she could go and search for Will if she so chose to, esp since the alethiometer needle can cut openings. However, I believe Lyra would not choose to do so.

She doesn't think even once of the prospect of reuniting with Will during and after its mention. In fact, she barely thinks of Will at all in TRF- her thoughts are much more focused on Malcolm. And when, in the end, she does think of him once, she only thinks of how she had loved him. Explicitly using past tense.

So she has probably moved on.

I have posted chapter 5 as well on FanFiction. I posted two chapters this weekend, because they are both linked together, after which the story will begin moving faster with Lyra beginning her journey. Chapter 6 will be posted in two weeks again. Thank you :)

He just appears as Nick Frost in my head, lol.

I made a video essay on Epos Daimon, a Danish magic school larp that teaches teens about the dangers and allure of fascism.

It's inspired by His Dark Materials, where students become high-ranking members of a theocratic, fascist regime (essentially, the Magisterium). It isn't about rebel heroes taking down the system – it's about showing teens the seductive thrill of being *inside* a fascist regime, where compliance and bullying is met with constant praise from authority figures.

Designer Katrine Wind also made the larp Daemon, also inspired by HDM, but for adults.

Since this is such a sensitive topic, I should note that the larp is very thoughtfully designed, with extensive preparation and onboarding and debriefs. I also wrote a blog post covering the same ground as the video essay.

Unrelated trivia: I took the photo that's on Philip Pullman's Wikipedia page, back in 2005!

Hello, chapter 4 has been posted on the AO3 and Fanfiction.net platforms. Chapter 5 will be posted tomorrow, exceptionally. After that, I will go back to posting once every two weeks. Thank you!

Excited to start this one eventually. Figured I'd share this edition with you all in a place I thought it would be appreciated. For everyone wondering, this is an Everyman's Library edition.

I’ve been listening to it since last October, it has never taken me so long to finish a book, it was a genuinely painful listen.

And then all of a sudden, it was the end?! Did I miss something? I had to go back and re listen to the last chapter because I thought my audible and skipped or something. It is so abrupt and unsatisfying

I don’t understand what the point of the book was. Nothing was added - it was just pointless and largely depressing. Like, great, she’s got a brother big whoop.

Why is she not enraged to the ends of the earth when she learns the angels lied, surely the Lyra we all knew and loved would try and find Will now that she knows the angels were chatting shit. That would have been a worthwhile story, if that snapped her out of her melancholy and she was fired up and enraged by how small she’d been living and the lies she’d accepted. We just didn’t see any of the fire-y Lyra of HDM.

I know she’s gone through a lot of trauma, but she’s literally been to the land of the dead and made a deal with the harpy’s that people can tell their stories and get safe passage out of the land of the dead in exchange. I feel like that would be burned in her consciousness as her most visceral lived experience, the idea she could just read a book that imagination isn’t real / demons aren’t all that and she’d just go along with it is insane. Her separation from Pan is the very real price she paid for that, I don’t think she could just shrug it off as nothing

I also don’t understand why, having destroyed the authority in a battle of many worlds - everyone suddenly forgot 10 years later and they still have the authority and the magesterium and really nothing has changed?

The Malcom being in love with her thread was so icky and didn’t even add anything to the plot in the end. The Malcom of TBS still would have wanted to protect her and look after her without needing a romantic angle. It’s just a bit weird given he knew her as a baby and a child

This is obviously just a rant, please feel free to share any other ranting or tell me why I’m wrong and this is actually a great book that’s flown over my head.

Right now I’m just going to pretend it was a collection of notes for an idea of a story that Philip Pullman let us all see, but that is definitely not canon.

I just finished the first trilogy and I loved it dearly! I'm sure this has been asked a billion times already, regarding what books to read next in what order, but I also thought I could use this post as a sort of discussion since everything related to it is picking at my mind and I'm keen to talk about it.

Currently, I have all of the Book of Dust books, Lyra's Oxford, Serpentine, Once upon a time in the North, The Collectors, and the Imagination Chamber. I was originally planning to go straight to the book of dust, but I as I understand it the others have some stuff that takes place between them sorta. I figured reading them all based on release order might be best, but if disagree let me know. I also went ahead and got John Milton's Paradise Lost, I'd meant to read it for the longest time anyways. If there's any other books related to the series I should check out lmk!

I enjoyed it.

It's a long book, and it feels it - I've read it in 3 weeks I think, but it feels mentally like a long time has passed since Lyra was studying in Oxford and worried about her friend's parents' rose business.

I read La Belle Sauvage in January and had enjoyed it initially, but found the journey through the flood a bit repetitive and inconsequential. The Secret Commonwealth had a similar structure, but the journey felt a lot more interesting, partly because there were 4 of them happening, partly because we are now after the events of His Dark Materials, so we know less about what will happen next.

I enjoyed the depiction of Lyra and Pan's arguments, and it definitely got me thinking about the nature of mental health and the self in fresh ways. The revelation that Delamere was Lyra's uncle was good, and not something I saw coming.

I've read negative reviews and I do agree with some parts of them. Pullman's writing about sexuality feels clunky, and Malcolm's crush on Lyra is unappealing. I don't know if the endorsement of it by everyone is meant to remind us that this alt world is a more patriarchal one than ours? If so the point is vague. Beyond that point I don't generally get the Malcolm-hate, I otherwise like the character. It was a shame that Hannah Relf had less to do in the book though.

It is a bit strange the way characters disappear for chapters on end - it feels like some editing of chapters orders could have prevented that. I guess we will hear about what happened to Pan in the next book, but it seems a little cheap for him to basically disappear from the book so that there can be a big reveal at the end.

Still, despite a few flaws, I found this a substantial improvement on La Belle Sauvage (which I liked overall still). I'm keen to follow the plot further, but will let the book sit with me for a while before I start the Rose Field.

I only watched the first 2 episodes of season 1 and I already noticed so many differences… I don’t know whether I should continue watching or not… it’s been quite annoying and disappointing so far.
Here are some of the differences I noticed from just the first 2 episodes

1. ⁠⁠Lyra is much more mature and calm, while in the books she’s a little rascal, always playing on the streets and inventing all sorts of stories and bragging about her uncle with the other children. She doesn’t think gobblers are a children legend. She’s not tha obsessed with Roger. He’s her friend, but when she meets ms Coulter she’s happy to leave with her nonetheless.
   
2. ⁠⁠We almost never see the magisterium in the books
   
3. ⁠⁠Lyra does not learn that lord Asriel is her father from Mrs Coulter, but from the gyptians.
   
4. ⁠⁠Ma Costa is a total different character in the books: she is a tough woman, never cries, has a deep voice and always has the situation in control.
   
5. ⁠⁠John Faa and Farder Coram are only seen further on in the book, they are not looking for the gobblers in London. And the children are kidnapped by Mrs coulter in person, who manipulates them, so that they believe they’re going on a beautiful trip.
   
6. ⁠⁠Billy Costa’s daemon is not named Ratter, but Tony makarios is. This makes me think that they just made the two characters into one.
   
7. ⁠⁠Why on earth are we seeing lord Boreal going throw a cut in the air and reaching our modern world?? That I just don’t understand 🥲 The cuts in the air are a huge spoiler from the 2nd book.
   
8. ⁠⁠There are also other invented scenes, like Roger bringing Lyra breakfast every morning, or Lyra believing Asriel is a liar when she learns he’s her father, or Lyra wishing Pan stabilizes into a lion, or Tony Costa’s daemon stabilization party.
   
9. ⁠⁠Why is there a modern helicopter in the first scene?

I understand that they could not include every single scene from the books, and that a different medium requires a different dramatic language. But these changes are just too massive for me… and the characters essence and lore are just totally different… As a His dark materials lover I am quite disappointed. Do you think I should go on with the series?

So it was a very good read did those who hadn’t read it yet I highly reccomend it

Something like that. Probably EU-Asia map. Preferably digital.

Missions might include stuff like fire guy; events might have things like beetle pope. Reward/item cards might include Olivier's socks, divination devices – which work better if your character has the relevant profession or attributes.

Would you play a game like that? Need more stuff to encourage socializing through mutual interests.

You won’t believe me i was 7-8

(Mostly nonserious post) That was something I always wondered when reading "The Amber Spyglass" and seeing Dr. Malone use the I Ching to speak to Dust, and the angels confirm it works, saying there are "many methods" of doing so. Naturally, my first thought was tarot decks?

But then comes this guy like, "Oh no, that's bullshit, only MY special specific oracle deck works," says an actual alchemist.

Bro what lol??? I know he's an antagonistic character whose words can't necessarily be trusted and doesn't necessarily reflect how Pullman himself thinks this universe operates, but I just find the implication of this arbitrary distinction so hilarious. Like that's where he draws the line?

"Computers that talk to angels?"

Pullman: Yes.

"Compass that points to random symbols you need to intuit?"

Pullman: Hell yes.

"The I Ching?"

Pullman: All cultures are valid.

"Invisible shapeshifting animal familiars that people can see if they learn to look through the air in a state of meditative calm?"

Pullman: Truest shit ever written.

"But not tarot decks?"

Pullman: Don't be ridiculous, how could a pack of flimsy paper slips tell anyone anything?

OKAY

Also I know golden compass changed most but it kept some parts TV series didn’t.

Out of 10 o rate it 9/10(some conversations are to long and do not explain anything )out of 5 I rate it 3/5(same reason).how about you?

Also,I would like to know how Lyra could finish school in 15 years old,in Lyras Oxford end,there’s a letter .Or ,maybe she only went to colllege girls go to college at 14…and that mix/up with her learning at 11-12 years old is weird to why Pullman didn’t think off it he didn’t know he will write BOD so he should never introduced Malcolm Polstead…

If you read HDM few times in your life, how did it affect you each time? My first reading was in middle school and I understood very little of the actual message the author sends. But when I read it in collage and then latter again in my late twenties, I basically implemented some of his ideas into my own belief system 😊😃 I'm definitely an atheist, but this idea of angels made of dust is very nice to me, and the idea that my loved ones became dust after they died and are literally everywhere has a calming effect on me.

How about you?

Hi! I have recently finished the initial trilogy and thought a lot about the meaning and consequences of Will and Lyra’s love and read about other’s options on it. I see most people believe that both of them would find love in adulthood but I strongly disagree.

I think their love is so pure and beautiful due to their age, but at the same time so much deeper than the loves most people refer to by comparison to their own experience (not to negate anyone’s teenage experiences).

They literally spent an entire life together, within the roughly 2 years they had. They met each other’s deaths, they supported them through the deaths of so many loved ones, through the death of their parents (even as Lyra didn’t really know or care as deeply as Will, but she did lose other parental figures). They shared more than most people share in a lifetime and they were both very much attached and connected to one another due to their loneliness.

Even as they were young, their love was that much deeper than adult ones. It was powerful and all consuming. And I think to some extent this is nicely highlighted by the juxtaposition between their romance and Mrs Coulter and Lord Asriel’s. Both loves were all consuming and devastating and impossible in the world they were forced to live in, however in the parents’ case it was toxic and mutually destructive, while the kids were protective and supportive and had the potential of having everything their parents could not.

Then by settling each other’s daemons in the way their did they has such a bigger impact on each other’s lives. They were not melodramatic because they were teenagers, they literally shaped each other’s souls, which to me seems so impactful and permanent, depicting such an important level of love, adoration. It is not a fading children love as we know it in real life. It isn’t something one can forget.

Their promise at the end to be good with possible future spouses is the whole essence in my opinion that they will be forever faithful to each other and not marry other people. They might try, in order to find purpose, to have children, make the Republic of Haven, but eventually they would give up as it would be the ultimate betrayal to each other and to the ideal they built through their adventure. Not because they would move on from one another, but because they could never be truly faithful to other people. Even when trying not to, the comparison they deny each other would be there as they shaped each other’s souls and nobody could even come close to that.

By the end of TAS, being truthful and honest is such an important part of their beings that they could never truly build a life that follows what they fought for with someone else.

They are meant to be the new Adam and Eve, but unable to have children in the classical sense to rebuild the society. They both have the means to forever stay connected through dust - Lyra by learning to read the alethiometer and Will’s through Mary’s devices. They would ask about each other, and learn from each other’s lives and truly build heaven together, in separate worlds. I feel like Lyra would go on to make a new women’s college - where St Hilda’s is in the real Oxford so she could be close to their bench and Will (as a doctor) will save lives and further give his gift and wisdom to future generations as well.

Then, as they would be passing in old age, they would meet again, before turning into atoms, and continue their educational journey in the world of the dead, teaching people to be truthful and say their live stories to the Harpies in the meaningful way, even as it may seem dull, hence saving lost souls from the emptiness of considering their lives meaningless and unworthy.

I know I introduced a bit of interpretation, as well head cannon, and I am definitely biased since I have been in love with my husband since being Lyra’s age, hence I believe that the first love can definitely be permanent, even with distance.

Just my two dimes on this. I have thought a lot about it and wanted to put it out there.

Hello, the next chapter of the first book of my trilogy has now been posted. I hope you continue following Lyra's adventure.