Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” trilogy is one of the most sophisticated and controversial works of children’s literature. The first book, “The Golden Compass,” is the simplest: it’s an adventure story set in a world where human souls take on the physical form of animal-shaped dæmons. The second book, “The Subtle Knife”, finds the young heroine Lyra traveling to other universes, including our own. The final book, “The Amber Spyglass,” gets even more ambitious, introducing even stranger worlds and featuring a full multiversal war over the fate of paradise.
Hollywood attempted to adapt the series for film with 2007’s “The Golden Compass.” This adaptation, which significantly toned down the source material’s curated criticism of religion in a failed attempt to avoid controversy, received critical mixed and bombed at the US box office, killing any chance of a sequel. However, the BBC and HBO eventually collaborated on a fuller, more faithful TV adaptation from 2019 (with the final season due to air in late 2022).
Pullman himself is back in the world of Lyra for a new trilogy, “The Book of Dust”. Two volumes have been released at the time of this writing – the prequel to “His Dark Materials” “La Belle Sauvage” and the sequel “The Secret Commonwealth” – although neither of these contains any crossovers with the others. universe of the original trilogy.