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PEOPLE & ARTS Thursday 16 February 2017
AP Interview: Pullman reveals ‘His Dark Materials’ follow-up

JILL LAWLESS Nor is it a sequel. Pullman says, “what’s good is good
Associated Press prefers to call it an “equel,” and what’s bad is bad and
LONDON (AP) — Here are or companion story. there isn’t very much dis-
words millions of readers “The first part will deal with cussion about it.”
have waited many years to something that happened Pullman prefers fantasy
hear: Lyra Belacqua, and when Lyra was less than 1 which wrestles with moral
her daemon, are back. year old,” he said. “So in ambiguity and has “one
The irrepressible young her- that sense she’s the center foot firmly in this world.”
oine of Philip Pullman’s fan- of the story, but she’s not He is also often contrast-
tasy trilogy “His Dark Mate- actually an agent in the ed with C.S. Lewis, whose
rials” returns in a new novel story. She is acted upon, so saga “The Chronicles of
being published in Britain to speak, by other people Narnia” has large doses of
and the U.S. on Oct. 19, the who are very important. Christian allegory.
first part of a new three- “The second part, which Pullman has called himself
book series collectively en- will come out later, will deal an atheist, and some Chris-
titled “The Book of Dust.” with events when Lyra is tian groups have objected
For readers and booksell- about 20.” to his negative depiction
ers, this is news to rival the There’s a new hero — a boy In this Jan. 11, 2017 photo provide by Penguin Random House, of organized religion. “His
discovery of a new Harry readers have encountered author Philip Pullman poses for a photograph outside of Worces- Dark Materials” has been
Potter story. “His Dark Ma- before “if we were paying ter College, in Oxford, England. pulled from some Catho-
terials” has sold more than attention” — and “a terri- Associated Press lic school library shelves in
17.5 million copies around fying adventure that takes Canada and the United
the world. It spawned a him into a new world.” characteristics that lead J.R.R. Tolkien’s fantasy saga States over the years.
Hollywood movie, “The Multiple worlds abound in her into trouble and which “The Lord of the Rings,” Pullman says he thinks most
Golden Compass,” and a Pullman’s complex, philo- help her get out of trouble.” though he doesn’t particu- objections to his books
hit stage adaptation. sophically rich fictional mul- Some critics have ranked larly like the comparison. come from people who
Published between 1995 tiverse. Pullman’s trilogy alongside In Tolkien’s Middle Earth, he haven’t read them. q
and 2000, the first three And Pullman says we will
novels — “Northern Lights,” learn a lot more about the
‘’The Subtle Knife” and nature of Dust, a mysterious
“The Amber Spyglass” — substance loathed by the
took Lyra from her home religious authorities in “His
at Oxford University’s an- Dark Materials.”
cient Jordan College to “The Book of Dust,” pub-
the North Pole and into lished in the U.S. by Ran-
parallel worlds on a twist- dom House Children’s and
ing, hazardous quest. (The in the U.K. by Penguin Ran-
first book was retitled “The dom House Children’s and
Golden Compass” in North David Fickling Books, is likely
America). to be one of the autumn’s
In Lyra’s intriguingly unfa- biggest sellers.
miliar world, Victorian-style James Daunt, managing
technology mixes with ad- director of Britain’s Water-
vanced science and soci- stone’s book store chain,
ety is overshadowed by an says Pullman ranks with J.K.
oppressive religious hierar- Rowling in his impact on
chy known as the Magiste- publishing and reading.
rium. Daunt said a generation of
Humans live alongside young readers “read first
witches and armored polar Harry Potter, then the com-
bears, and every person is plex, gripping and provoc-
accompanied by an ani- ative ‘His Dark Materials.’”
mal companion known as “Other books, other au-
a daemon (pronounced thors make claims and
demon) — essentially their bring huge rewards, but
soul made flesh. these two imprint on every-
Yet the 70-year-old Pullman one who calls themselves a
hesitates to call his books reader,” Daunt said.
fantasy. For fans, the mischievous
“I prefer to think I am writ- Lyra is one of fiction’s great
ing realism,” he said. “I’m child characters, up there
writing realism about a dif- with Mark Twain’s Huckle-
ferent place.” berry Finn and Scout Finch
Speaking to The Associ- from Harper Lee’s “To Kill a
ated Press from his home Mockingbird.”
in Oxford, Pullman scrupu- Pullman calls her “this awk-
lously guards the secrets of ward, difficult, prying, nosy,
the new book. Even its title lying, greedy, untrustworthy
has yet to be disclosed. child.”
The new book begins a de- “She’s not a special child,”
cade before the start of he said. “She’s not divinely
the original trilogy, but Pull- gifted or anything like that.
man says is not a prequel. But she does have certain