This year will truly be one for the books for fans of Philip Pullman. In addition to us getting a second shot at The Golden Compass story with the impending HBO/BBC series His Dark Materials, readers will also be getting The Secret Commonwealth, which is the second entry in the Book of Dust series, which acts as a companion trilogy to His Dark Materials. This has been a long time coming, but we’re about ready to call 2019 a net plus after years and years of nothing.

A couple of years back, author Philip Pullman released the first novel in The Book of Dust trilogy, and as much as I loved it, there was something missing. Lyra. Sure, the lead of the original trilogy may have been there, but she was just a little baby, and the connections to the world-at-large seemed minimal at best.

Now, with The Secret Commonwealth, we will be following Lyra again, years after the events in The Amber Spyglass, which was the third book in the His Dark Materials trilogy. I, for one, and hoping for some more concrete connections, but Pullman has never been one to give us the expected. But, based on the synopsis, it sounds like they WILL at least be connecting Lyra to Malcolm, the latter of whom was the main character of the first volume of The Book of Dust.

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Here is the synopsis for the book:

“Lyra Silvertongue’s adventures in the North are long over–the windows between the many worlds have been sealed, and her beloved Will is lost to her. She does still have the alethiometer: the truth-telling device given to her by the master of Jordan College, which guided her journey.

“Lyra doesn’t know the full story of the alethiometer, though. Or the role that young Malcolm Polstead played in bringing both the instrument and baby Lyra to Jordan. She’s now a twenty-year-old undergraduate at St. Sophia’s College. To her, Malcolm is Dr. Polstead, an overly solicitous professor she would prefer to avoid.

“But intrigue is swirling around Lyra once more. Her daemon Pantalaimon is witness to a brutal murder, and the dying man entrusts them with secrets that carry echoes from their past. They learn of a city haunted by daemons, of a desert said to hold the secret of Dust.

“Powerful forces are about to throw Lyra and Malcolm together once again. And the dangers they face will challenge everything they thought they knew about the world, and about themselves.”

Can’t get enough yet? Well, Slate has your first taste of the actual story. Take a look at the first excerpt from the novel HERE!

Are you excited for The Secret Commonwealth? Let us know down below!

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SOURCE: Slate