His Dark Materials Omnibus
Read His Dark Materials Omnibus Online
Authors: Philip Pullman
PRAISE FOR PHILIP PULLMAN’S
HIS DARK MATERIALS
Book I • The Golden Compass
Winner of the Carnegie Medal (England)
Winner of the
Guardian
Prize for Fiction (England)
“Superb … all-stops-out thrilling.”
—
The Washington Post
“Magnificent … a fantasy-adventure that sparkles with childlike wonder.”
—The Boston Sunday Globe
“Marvelous … the writing is elegant and challenging.”
—
The New Yorker
Book II • The Subtle Knife
Winner of a
Parents’ Choice
Gold Award
A
Booklist
Editors’ Choice
“Destined to become a classic.”
—
Detroit Free Press
“As rich and complex a fantasy novel as any adult reader could wish for.”
—San Francisco Examiner-Chronicle
“The story gallops with ferocious momentum [and] Pullman is devilishly inventive.”
—
The New York Times Book Review
Book III • The Amber Spyglass
Winner of the Whitbread Book of the Year Award (England)
A
New York Times
Bestseller
“Masterful.… This title confirms Pullman’s inclusion in the company of C. S. Lewis and Tolkien.”
—
Smithsonian
“As complex and dazzling as a kaleidoscope.”
—The Denver Post
“A brilliantly written adventure story.… Superbly crafted and breathtaking in scope.”
—Detroit Free Press
Also by Philip Pullman
His Dark Materials:
The Golden Compass •
Book I
The Subtle Knife •
Book II
The Amber Spyglass •
Book III
Lyra’s Oxford
The Broken Bridge
Count Karlstein
I Was a Rat!
Puss in Boots
The Ruby in the Smoke
The Scarecrow and His Servant
The Shadow in the North
Spring-Heeled Jack
The Tiger in the Well
The Tin Princess
The White Mercedes
THIS IS A BORZOI BOOK PUBLISHED BY ALFRED A. KNOPF
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
The Golden Compass
copyright © 1995 by Philip Pullman
The Subtle Knife
copyright © 1997 by Philip Pullman
The Amber Spyglass
copyright © 2000 by Philip Pullman
Interior illustrations copyright © 2005 by Philip Pullman
“Lantern Slides” text copyright © 2007 by Philip Pullman
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife
, and
The Amber Spyglass
were published separately by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., in 1996, 1997, and 2000, respectively.
The Golden Compass
was originally published under the title
His Dark Materials I: Northern Lights
in Great Britain by Scholastic Children’s Books, an imprint of Scholastic Ltd., in 1995.
The Subtle Knife
and
The Amber Spyglass
were published in Great Britain by Scholastic Children’s Books, an imprint of
Scholastic Ltd., in 1997 and 2000.
The title page illustration entitled “Mr. Pullman’s Raven,” copyright © 2006 by John Lawrence, was originally published in
The Golden Compass Deluxe Edition
by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., in 2006.
“The Ecclesiast” from
Rivers and Mountains
by John Ashbery. Copyright © 1962, 1963, 1964, 1966 by John Ashbery. Reprinted by permission of Georges Borchardt, Inc., for the author.
“The Third Elegy” from
Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke
by Rainer Maria Rilke. Copyright © 1982 by Stephen Mitchell. Reprinted by permission of Random House, Inc.
KNOPF, BORZOI BOOKS
, and the colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Educators and librarians, for a variety of teaching tools, visit us at
www.randomhouse.com/teachers
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available upon request.
eISBN: 978-0-307-80820-2
v3.1
Into this wild abyss
,
The womb of nature and perhaps her grave
,
Of neither sea, nor shore, nor air, nor fire
,
But all these in their pregnant causes mixed
Confusedly, and which thus must ever fight
,
Unless the almighty maker them ordain
His dark materials to create more worlds
,
Into this wild abyss the wary fiend
Stood on the brink of hell and looked a while
,
Pondering his voyage …
—John Milton,
Paradise Lost
, Book II
PART ONE
OXFORD
1
THE DECANTER Of TOKAY
Lyra and her dæmon moved through the darkening hall, taking care to keep to one side, out of sight of the kitchen. The three great tables that ran the length of the hall were laid already, the silver and the glass catching what little light there was, and the long benches were pulled out ready for the guests. Portraits of former Masters hung high up in the gloom along the walls. Lyra reached the dais and looked back at the open kitchen door, and, seeing no one, stepped up beside the high table. The places here were laid with gold, not silver, and the fourteen seats were not oak benches but mahogany chairs with velvet cushions.
Lyra stopped beside the Master’s chair and flicked the biggest glass gently with a fingernail. The sound rang clearly through the hall.
“You’re not taking this seriously,” whispered her dæmon. “Behave yourself.”
Her dæmon’s name was Pantalaimon, and he was currently in the form of a moth, a dark brown one so as not to show up in the darkness of the hall.
“They’re making too much noise to hear from the kitchen,” Lyra whispered back. “And the Steward doesn’t come in till the first bell. Stop fussing.”
But she put her palm over the ringing crystal anyway, and Pantalaimon fluttered ahead and through the slightly open door of the Retiring Room at the other end of the dais. After a moment he appeared again.
“There’s no one there,” he whispered. “But we must be quick.”
Crouching behind the high table, Lyra darted along and through the door into the Retiring Room, where she stood up and looked around. The only light in here came from the fireplace, where a bright blaze of logs settled slightly as she looked, sending a fountain of sparks up into the chimney. She had lived most of her life in the College, but had never seen the Retiring Room before: only Scholars and their guests were allowed in here, and never females. Even the maidservants didn’t clean in here. That was the Butler’s job alone.
Pantalaimon settled on her shoulder.
“Happy now? Can we go?” he whispered.
“Don’t be silly! I want to look around!”
It was a large room, with an oval table of polished rosewood on which stood various decanters and glasses, and a silver smoking stand with a rack of pipes. On a sideboard nearby there was a little chafing dish and a basket of poppy heads.
“They do themselves well, don’t they, Pan?” she said under her breath.
She sat in one of the green leather armchairs. It was so deep she found herself nearly lying down, but she sat up again and tucked her legs under her to look at the portraits on the walls. More old Scholars, probably; robed, bearded, and gloomy, they stared out of their frames in solemn disapproval.