After GoT, HBO Plans to Hook You with His Dark Materials
This Philip Pullman masterpiece will totes be binge-worthy.
The Game of Thrones series is finally over, and most people have no idea what to do with themselves. Some are planning to re-watch the eight seasons again while the others plan to see the Game of Thrones finale over and over again to make more sense of it. If you are among such fiction fans, then we have some good news for you. HBO has come up with plans to launch a new series, His Dark Materials, that will aim to be as popular as GoT.
Though we can’t say whether His Dark Materials would be good enough to get the attention of all the GoT fans, we have to admit that His Dark Materials trailer is interesting because you see everything from fighting polar bears to grandiose ships to even creatures known as Daemons in it. For the uninitiated, His Dark Materials will be based on the books of the same name by Philip Pullman. Currently, there are only three books out but more are in the works, and we sincerely hope that Pullman would finish them sooner than R.R. Martin!
What’s in the Books
If you are curious about HBO’s His Dark Materials series and want an overview of the story, then you should read on. His Dark Materials trilogy was completed in just five years, 1995-2000 and has three books, the Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass
The Golden Compass
This book introduces you to Lyra Belacqua (played by Dafne Keen in HBO’s His Dark Materials) who is a 12-year-old orphan who is raised by the faculty of Jordan College (fictional) in English City of Oxford. Things change for Lyra when a group of children abducting religious fanatics known as the “Gobblers” kidnap her friend, and she tries to rescue him from their arctic research station.
His Dark Materials has unique stuff like Daemons (animal familiar of every person), Dust (a particle that might be inspired by Force in Star Wars and is attracted by consciousness) and an Alethiometer (A device that reacts to Dust and helps Lyra in her journey).
This book of the His Dark Materials series also introduces several key characters like Lyra’s uncle Lord Asriel (played by James McAvoy), the Gobbler leader Mrs. Coulter (played by Ruth Wilson), the armoured bear king Iorek Byrnison, the witch Serafina Pekkala (played by Ruta Gedmintas), and balloonist Texan Lee Scoresby (played by Lin-Manuel Miranda).
The Subtle Knife
When Golden Compass ends, Lyra journeys to a parallel universe whose portal was opened by Lord Asriel. The universe has soul-sucking Spectres that attack adults and are invisible to kids. Lyra meets a kid, Will from her world and uses the titular knife to cut gateways between parallel worlds.
The Amber Spyglass
The third book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, Lord Asriel again plays an important role as he leads renegade angels in a war against a powerful angel who claims that he is the creator of the Universe. The angel is called the Metatron. Lyra and Will visit the underworld to find The Authority, the false god of creation imprisoned and things get interesting.
After reading the books, you might conclude that Pullman is defending the choices of Adam and Eve to defend all of humanity and asserts that it’s better than humans chose each other and knowledge.
The Book of Dust Trilogy
The His Dark Materials trilogy also has a sequel that takes place before and after the main trilogy.
La Belle Sauvage
This book follows an infant Lyra as she is protected from the Magisterium during a flood by a young boy.
The Secret Commonwealth
This book shows Lyra as an undergraduate and will be released on October 3 this year.
The world of His Dark Materials trilogy is not limited to these five novels as Pullman has also written two novellas, Lyra’s Oxford, published in 2003 and Once Upon a Time in the North, published in 2008. So, HBO has plenty of content to work with if it plans to extend the world of His Dark Materials in the future. Right now, the channel has announced that the first season will follow The Golden Compass and even the premiere date of the book hasn’t been decided yet.
Are you planning to watch the HBO’s His Dark Materials series?
