HisDarkMaterials.org

The next British invasion of the American imagination is being led by a precocious young girl named Lyra who lives in a world of mystical animal companions, magical knives and talking bears.

Lyra Belacqua is the heroine of "His Dark Materials," a young-adult fantasy trilogy by Philip Pullman that has enthralled young Brits and inspired a perpetually sold-out, two-part, six-hour play at London's National Theatre.

With a three-movie deal by New Line Cinema, Lyra may join Harry Potter, Frodo Baggins and Luke Skywalker in Hollywood's pantheon of fantasy heroes.

A popular British children's writer, Pullman published the first book in the trilogy, "Northern Lights," later renamed "The Golden Compass," in 1996. It was followed by "The Subtle Knife" and "The Amber Spyglass." The trilogy has sold more than 7 million copies and has been translated into 37 languages. Literary heavyweight Tom Stoppard is writing the screenplay for the first of the three movies; production is expected to start late this year.

But the Oxford depicted in "The Golden Compass" has meaner streets than any seen thus far in J.K. Rowling's Hogwarts. Pullman has been described as the atheist answer to C.S. Lewis, who authoredthe Christian-oriented "Narnia" series, and a nonbeliever offering an alternate viewpoint of the fall from Eden.

In Lyra's world, every person is born with a daemon, or animal companion, who reflects the person's inner personality. Lyra, a half-wild urchin, sets out to discover who has been kidnapping children, including her best friend. But all the adults around Lyra, including her dashing uncle, seem to have sinister agendas.

Lyra later finds an authoritarian church is behind the kidnapping and a supreme being known as "The Authority" is senile, not all-knowing. Life after death is neither life nor death as we know it in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

"Pullman's work is a darker world for children than the one found in the Lewis books and even the Tolkien world." said Cynthia Richey, president of the Association for Library Services to Children, a division of the American Library Association. "Evil is not necessarily vanquished."

Librarians strongly suggest the trilogy only be read by those age 13 and up.

Yet Richey, like many librarians and bookstore owners, praises Pullman's writing, his sophistication (the term "his dark materials" is from Milton's "Paradise Lost") and his imagination.

"We love it, it's fabulous," said Terry Schmitz, owner of The Children's Book Shop in Brookline. "Certainly, we don't sell it in the numbers of Harry Potter. But we sell tons. People love it."

[� Boston Herald, 02/06/04]