New Release: The Imagination Chamber

Greetings Shadow Chasers and Dust Makers. 

True, there is still very little word regarding the completion or release date for the as yet unnamed final volume in The Book of Dust trilogy, but there is an exciting new book coming out in April that is sure to a welcome addition to your Philip Pullman library. 

Known only as The Imagination Chamber, it promises to return readers to the world of our favorite characters, such as Lyra, Mrs. Coulter, Iorek, Lee Scoresby, and all the rest. It looks to be a work of supplementary material, and about 96 pages long. I am always excited about any and all companion works that tease out new ideas and insights regarding the novels we know and love. 

As taken from amazon.co.uk, The Imagination Chamber will be 

A book of stunning, moving, exhilarating, breathtaking scenes

set during the events of Northern Lights, The Subtle Knife, The  

Amber Spyglass, and The Book of Dust: from Serafina Pekkala

sitting quietly on her cloud pine, listening to Dust, ahead of the 

epic battle with the Angels, to a young Lyra speculating about 

her mother's identity. In exquisite prose, Philip Pullman cuts 

new windows into his worlds for the reader to step through and

reveals new truths about many of the iconic characters

from Lyra's universe. 

Which sounds really interesting and should make for an unexpected little literary treat. And yes, all from the Amazon UK, because for whatever reason the American site does not have it available for pre-order yet. I find it hard to believe it won't be available on this side of the pond, but we will have to wait and see. Everyone can immediately order it here however, and I for one have used Amazon UK myself for book acquisitions. The extra shipping isn't that expensive, and everything seems to work just fine, even during global health crisis'. I will probably give it another month before placing a UK order though. 

P.S. As far as additional dark materials are concerned, I am still holding out hope for the fabled "Green Book," which Pullman has alluded to on numerous occasions. With Lyra's Oxford and Serpentine published, we really, really need to catch a good glimpse or two of Will Parry after the events of HDM. Because - let's be honest - it's been a long time without any news regarding our favorite Knife Bearer. 

P.P.S. I would also like to add that the graphic novel version of The Subtle Knife has just been released and is now available here. I received mine in the mail this week and hopefully will be doing a brief review of it as well as The Golden Compass edition. 

And as Always 

Stay Dusty My Friends

#HisDarkMaterials #TheBookOfDust  #PhilipPullman 

#BuildingTheRepublic  #PullmanStudies  #JordanScholarship

#InDustWeTrust  #DownAndDusty   #TheGreatProject

The World of The Golden Compass and a Very Dusty Quote

 

Greetings Shadow Chasers and Dust Makers. 

In researching my eventual scholarly His Dark Materials book, I have been reading through numerous collections of essays and such that I have acquired over the years. The one featured above I believe hails from Borders Books, and is barely available anywhere these days. Apparently Amazon has a copy or two left, as seen here. 

It offers about twenty essays of varying length and quality, often penned by popular young adult authors of the time such as Scott Westerfield, Cinda Williams Chima, O.R. Melling, and Herbie Brennan. All in all it was a fun, enjoyable read, with topics ranging from metaphysics to religion to romance to literature to bushido-esque bears (we're looking at you Iorek). I should mention some of the essay titles are particularly memorable, such as "Lord Asriel: Dad from Hell or Heroic Rebel?," "Hot Sex and Horrific Parenting in His Dark Materials," "Shedding Light on Dark Matter," and "A Short History of Hell and the Crabby Old God Who Sends You There." 

One write-up was of particular interest though, and was simply called "Pullman's Dark Materials," by Alison Croggon. A poet herself, she delves into the bits of poetry that Pullman singled out as significant sources of inspiration behind his trilogy, particularly as used and outlined in The Amber Spyglass. She leaves out on the note of Lord Asriel as a Blakean hero in the Romantic revolutionary mode, but closes with a startling bit of literary insight which I wholly agree with and couldn't resist typing out here - 

But in the end, I think the single most important informing idea behind His Dark Materials is in the line that rings out like a clarion trumpet at the end of Blake's poem, for me one of the most beautiful lines written by this most beautiful of poets. And it is perhaps what you might fruitfully take as the "meaning" of these books. 

For every thing that lives is holy. 

Many readers perhaps don't particularly clue into this, but your Jordan Scholar couldn't agree more. 

And as Always 

Stay Dusty My Friends

#HisDarkMaterials #TheBookOfDust  #PhilipPullman 

#BuildingTheRepublic  #PullmanStudies  #JordanScholarship

#InDustWeTrust  #DownAndDusty   #TheGreatProject