In interviews with French and Israelian fansites, Philip Pullman has revealed that he will write another book to accompany the His Dark Materials trilogy. Whereas The Book of Dust will be about Lyra after the trilogy has ended, this new book titled Once Upon A Time In The North will move back to before The Golden Compass and focus on Iorek and Lee Scoresby.
“When we see them for the first time with Lyra, Lee is not that old, he's fifty, sixty, something like that, so they know each other for a long time. But I wanted to write a story when they first met as they were young, and I've just written it.”
Read Cittàgazze.com's full interview.
Aside from the revelation of another book, he also confirmed that The Book of Dust will not be a book about Dust, but indeed another story about Lyra. It won't be a sequel, but more like an independant story.
When asked about Will, Pullman hinted that there may eventually be another book about Will as well.
The interview also covers Philip Pullman’s opinion about the movies, and some other His Dark Materials related and unrelated topics. Well worth the read!
22 comments - Add yours
#1
OK… now I’m confused. I thought TBoD was not going to be about Lyra?
# September 2, 2007 19:07 by edd8990
#2
I’m also quite confused...I thought TBoD wouldn’t just be about Lyra...anyway, Once Upon a Time In The North should be interesting :D
# September 2, 2007 19:59 by Anbaric Flame
#3 Update
I’ve just updated the article with more information.
# September 2, 2007 20:02 by L!NK
#4
“The film-makers come from Netherlands, they… It’s a Dutch fansite. Is it hisdarkmaterials.org ?”
:O
So I suppose TBoD will be something like Lyra´s Oxford, then? Hopefully both Once Upon a Time.. and TBoD will be good.
# September 3, 2007 03:05 by Lari
#5
I’m wondering—has there been any recent news on BoD? Say, how far’s he’s into it, a cover, when it’s coming…
And a book on Iorek and Lee/Hester will be exciting. :D
# September 3, 2007 03:18 by Asha
#6
I’m very hesitant to say it’s a good thing to see now a number of small “companion novels” floating around HDM. However, Lee is my favorite character and he and Iorek were war comrades so it should be a romp. This also could be de-mudding the plot for TBoD.
# September 3, 2007 03:31 by Phit
#7 TBoD
Asha. It’s been quite silent around the Book of Dust. He was just writing it, no more information was really released. This is the first time we actually have confirmation about what it’s going to be about.
# September 3, 2007 10:27 by L!NK
#8
Would you all crucity me if I said i’m not that excited about this book?
# September 3, 2007 13:17 by anna11
#9 Spyk
He’s happy with Coulters hair being blonde, then, but what was that about him making a mistake the first time he described her?
# September 3, 2007 19:04 by Spyk
#10
True, I was wondering the same while I read the interview and forgot to comment on it. The book says both Coulter and Asriel had dark hair.. And I´ve read the first part of TGC recently so I remember that pretty well..
# September 4, 2007 01:44 by Lari
#11
‘A have this website somebody else does for me. ‘
huh? He doesn’t write the website himeslf?
# September 4, 2007 01:59 by anna11
#12
Erm, if the BoD is not about Dust, what is it about? Individual stories that talked about Dust? Or mention Dust, something like thaT?
# September 4, 2007 11:35 by Lyra-asia
#13 his website
Well that would be a let-down if it turned out he wasn’t even writing in it. It sounds a lot like his voice though in the messages. *is confused*
# September 4, 2007 18:43 by Miss Bear
#14
Sounds very cool, looking forward to it. :)
# September 5, 2007 00:08 by Dark Fantasies
#15
Huh?! Lee was fifty when he met Lyra? When I saw the first preview I was mad because he looked so old.... Did anyone else think he was in his thirties? Oh and PS BoD was first said to be a book of backstories not focusing on Lyra, so I don’t know when that changed…
# September 5, 2007 04:10 by Ruta S
#16
I loved Lyra’s Oxford. However, I’m a bit cautious about the general idea of a number of companion novels. I do hope they will add to the experience of HDM, not take something away from it.
# September 5, 2007 21:37 by chastity
#17 Pullman's website
I’m sure what he means is, he writes all the text for it but it’s a professional web developer that built the website and updates it with the content Pullman writes.
# September 6, 2007 06:00 by daftbrain
#18
there should be a book about will. there was another book about lyra, and now theres lee and iorek, so there should be one about will.
# September 13, 2007 22:48 by jessie12395
#19
VEry interesting. I cannot wait for TBoD to be published finally. And a possibility of another “Will” book is exciting news also.
# September 14, 2007 18:04 by Ondaeronge
#20
I feel disappointed in Pullman after reading that interview (amongst others). I am to believe that J.K.Rowling was involved in the making of the Harry Potter films and she made sure that every aspect possible was correct in how she imagined it. However Pullman doesn’t seem to care. It is almost as if he has got his money from the film makers and as long as he has his money, they can do what they want with the film. Please tell me if you disagree.
# September 18, 2007 00:12 by msspookymonroex
#21
His initial reaction to the movies was precisely “take the money and run” but I really respect the authors willing to step back and see the story re-told by someone else. I don’t terribly like the authors who think no one else can reach the perfection of their story - I feel as if my own imagination reading over it is somehow intruding into Their special world which I can never appreciate.
# September 23, 2007 20:25 by Phit
#22
sweet, a book about lee and iorek!
i realy wanna see what they did in the war lee mentions. and lee and iorek are some of my favorite characters
# September 30, 2007 17:18 by serchre