Read an excerpt from Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials spinoff novel

Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials series is having a moment. To start, the BBC and HBO are adapting the base trilogy into a TV show to drop later this year.

Meanwhile, Pullman has a new novel — The Secret Commonwealth — also on tap for 2019. It’s the second novel in his Dark Materials spinoff series The Book of Dust.

If you’re unfamiliar with either series, His Dark Materials follows the adventures of Lyra Belacqua, a young girl who gets caught up in a multi-dimensional conspiracy to discover the truth behind “Dust,” mysterious particles attracted to human consciousness. It’s set in a futuristic version of Victorian London, and also there are witches and talking armored bears and at one point god shows up. It’s a trippy, excellent read.

The Book of Dust also involves Lyra, although the first book in the series, La Belle Sauvage, is a prequel. In contrast, The Secret Commonwealth takes place seven years after the end of His Dark Materials, per Digital Spy.

Lyra is now a 20-year old undergraduate at Oxford, and decides to go on an adventure to the Far East. Here’s an extract from the book from Penguin Random House UK. Pan, to tell you ahead of time, is Lyra’s daemon, a kind of literal spirit animal. Everyone in Lyra’s world has one.

"‘It used to be you who was impulsive,’ said Pan, ‘and me who kept holding you back. We’re different now.’She nodded. ‘Well, you know, things change … This isn’t just shoplifting. This is murder.’‘I know. I saw it.’‘And maybe by doing this we’d be helping the murderer get away with it. By interfering with the investigation. That can’t be right.’‘That’s another thing,’ he said.‘What?’‘You used to be optimistic. You used to think that whatever we did would turn out well. Even after we came back from the north, you used to think that. Now you’re cautious, you’re anxious … You’re pessimistic.’She knew he was right, but it wasn’t right that he should speak to her accusingly, as if it was something to blame her for.‘I used to be young,’ was all she could find to say.He made no response.They didn’t speak again till they reached the station. Then she said ‘Pan, come here,’ and he leapt up at once into her hands. She put him on her shoulder and said quietly, ‘You’re going to have to look out behind. Someone might be watching.’"

Go ahead, Penguin Random House, take all my money. The Secret Commonwealth will be available on October 3. Pre-order it here.

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