The Church (governed by the 'Magisterium', the same name as the authority of the Catholic Church) exerts a strong control over society and has some of the appearance and organisation of the Catholic Church, but one in which the centre of power had moved from Rome to Geneva, moved there by Pullman's fictional 'Pope John Calvin' ( Geneva was the home of the historical John Calvin). The dominant religion has parallels with Christianity. In Northern Lights, the story takes place in a world with some similarities to our own: dress-style resembles that of the UK's Edwardian era the technology does not include cars or fixed-wing aircraft, but zeppelins feature as a mode of transport. The trilogy takes place across a multiverse, moving between many parallel worlds. Main article: Locations in His Dark Materials Both are set in the same universe as Northern Lights. La Belle Sauvage, the first book in a new trilogy titled The Book of Dust, was published on 19 October 2017 the second book of the new trilogy, The Secret Commonwealth, was published in October 2019. Pullman followed the trilogy with three novellas set in the Northern Lights universe: Lyra's Oxford (2003), Once Upon a Time in the North (2008), and Serpentine (2020). A HBO/BBC television series based on the novels was broadcast between November 2019 and February 2023. New Line Cinema released a film adaptation of Northern Lights, The Golden Compass, in 2007.

The London Royal National Theatre staged a two-part adaptation of the trilogy in 2003–2004. The trilogy has attracted controversy for its criticism of religion. It functions in part as a retelling and inversion of John Milton's epic Paradise Lost, with Pullman commending humanity for what Milton saw as its most tragic failing, original sin. The fantasy elements include witches and armoured polar bears the trilogy also alludes to concepts from physics, philosophy, and theology.

Īlthough His Dark Materials has been marketed as young adult fiction, and the central characters are children, Pullman wrote with no target audience in mind. In 2003, the trilogy was ranked third on the BBC's The Big Read poll.

The novels have won a number of awards, including the Carnegie Medal in 1995 for Northern Lights and the 2001 Whitbread Book of the Year for The Amber Spyglass. It follows the coming of age of two children, Lyra Belacqua and Will Parry, as they wander through a series of parallel universes. His Dark Materials is a trilogy of fantasy novels by Philip Pullman consisting of Northern Lights (1995 published as The Golden Compass in North America), The Subtle Knife (1997), and The Amber Spyglass (2000).

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman