His Dark Materials slipcase (Paperback)

Somewhere out there is the origin of all the Dust, all the death, the sin, the misery, the destructiveness of the world. Human beings can’t see anything without wanting to destroy it, Lyra. That’s original sin. And I’m going to destroy it. Death is going to die.

It begins with a girl and her daemon

The girl is Lyra Belacqua, an orphan who lives in a place like, and yet unlike, Oxford in a parallel universe in which science, theology and magic are entwined. Yet for Lyra, her world is about climbing the rooftops of the Oxford colleges with her friend Roger, enthralling the neighbourhood children with her tales and keeping out of the way of the scholars of Jordan College.

Then children start to go missing, snatched mysteriously by a group the children call ‘The Gobblers’. When Roger is taken, Lyra founds herself bound up in a dangerous chase, a daring game of cat-and-mouse that sees her on the run from the highest authorities.

It is a hunt that will take her far from Oxford, to high-society London and the home of the mysterious and beautiful Mrs Coulter and beyond, to the home of the witches and the kingdom of the ice bears where the aurora awaits.

Here Lyra’s quest for answers becomes a mission to understand a mysterious phenomenon called Dust and there are secrets too, about her own family, about a prophecy, about betrayal and about the universe; secrets that come at a deadly cost.

"What is he? A friend, or an enemy?”…

"He is a murderer."

Will has just killed a man.

Frightened and with nowhere safe to turn, he runs.

His escape will take him far beyond his own world, to the eerie disquiet of the deserted city of Cittàgaze, and to a girl, Lyra Belacqua, who comes from a world that runs in parallel to his own.

As they learn to trust each other, Will and Lyra’s fates become intertwined and their safety dependent upon each other’s skill and bravery. For somewhere in the city is the most powerful weapon in all creation, a knife to cut through worlds. A knife that responds only to the hand intended to wield it.

You said I was a warrior. You told me that was my nature, and I shouldn’t argue with it. Father, you were wrong. I fought because I had to. I can’t choose my nature, but I can choose what I do. And I will choose, because now I’m free.

Will is the knife-bearer and his instructions from his father are clear: find Lord Asriel.

But Will and Lyra have been separated and Lyra is the sleeping prisoner of Mrs Coulter and her vicious golden monkey daemon. They must find each other, for their fates are bound together by powers beyond their understanding and ahead of them lies the greatest war that has ever been.

Across the worlds their friends are scattered. Each will have their part to play, for good and ill, in the battle to come.

The days of childhood are ended and as Will and Lyra come to understand the true meaning they have been searching for they face a journey that will test the very limits of their endurance. A journey in the dark to a dark place from which no one has ever returned.

Forces are amassing, the time of reckoning approaches, a battle that will demand the ultimate sacrifice.

‘Without stories, we wouldn’t be human beings at all.’ - Philip Pullman

‘As always, Pullman is a master at combining impeccable characterizations and seamless plotting, maintaining a crackling pace to create scene upon scene of almost unbearable tension. This glittering gem will leave readers of all ages eagerly awaiting the next instalment of Lyra’s.