1793 – The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust #2 – 2019)

timespace coordinates: – journey across Europe and the East – The setting is a world dominated by the Magisterium, an international theocracy which actively suppresses heresy. In this world, humans’ souls naturally exist outside of their bodies in the form of sapient “dæmons” in animal form which accompany, aid, and comfort their humans.

The Secret Commonwealth is a 2019 fantasy novel by Philip Pullman, the second volume of his planned trilogy The Book of Dust. The story is set twenty years or so after the events of La Belle Sauvage and ten years after the conclusion of the His Dark Materials trilogy.

Pullman took his title The Secret Commonwealth from a 17th century book of the same name by the Scottish clergyman Robert Kirk, about encounters of country folk with supernatural creatures. (wiki)

goodreads   /   jesussotes

1754 – La Belle Sauvage (2017 novel)

timespace coordinates: Oxford > London, parallel ~Edwardian era Britain (or Brytain) // “The Trout”  inn, the Priory of St. Rosamund, Jordan College

The setting is a world dominated by the Magisterium (commonly called “the Church”) an international theocracy which actively suppresses heresy. In this world, humans’ souls naturally exist outside of their bodies in the form of sentient “dæmons” in animal form which accompany, aid, and comfort their humans.

La Belle Sauvage is a fantasy novel by Philip Pullman published in 2017. It is the first volume of a planned trilogy entitled The Book of Dust and is set twelve years before Pullman’s His Dark Materials. It presents events prior to the arrival of the six-month-old Lyra Belacqua at Jordan College, Oxford.

The story follows 11-year-old Malcolm Polstead and his dæmon Asta, and a village girl named Alice and her dæmon Ben, who become the protectors of the infant Lyra Belacqua and her dæmon, Pantalaimon, in Malcolm’s canoe, La Belle Sauvage, during a flood. Malcolm forms a friendship with alethiometer specialist Hannah Relf, allied with the secret freedom-seeking organisation Oakley Street, and is drawn into their fight against the growing strength of the Magisterium, which has learned of a prophecy concerning Lyra. Malcolm and Alice are pursued by the maniacal villain Gerard Bonneville, an ally of the Consistorial Court of Discipline (CCD), as they struggle to reach London and Lyra’s father Lord Asriel, in order to gain the protection of Jordan College for the baby. (wiki)

goodreads   /   The Golden Compass (2007)