His Dark Materials: Serpentine

By: Philip Pullman

Narrated by: Olivia Colman

A bewitching tale with a fascinating new glimpse of young Lyra and her dæmon, Pantalaimon. This companion to the New York Times bestselling His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust series follows Pullman's beloved characters on a brand new adventure.

After the world-altering events of The Amber Spyglass, Lyra and Pan find themselves irrevocably changed. In this new companion story, set after the stunning conclusion to the original His Dark Materials trilogy, Lyra and Pan will journey to the far North once more, hoping to ask the Consul of Witches a most urgent question.
This brand-new story, a beguiling must-read for Pullman fans old and new, is a perfect companion to His Dark Materials and a fascinating bridge to The Book of Dust.

Critic reviews

“[Serpentine] brings with it all the familiar delights of Pullman’s work: its effortless clarity, its intelligence, its ineffable mix of coziness and darkness, innocence and experience.” —Lev Grossman, The New York Times

"A poignant return to Lyra and Pan."—The Wall Street Journal

"Lovely." —Slate

“A fitting prologue to The Secret Commonwealth, . . . . Serpentine is a very well-written piece, with good dialogue and beautiful imagery.” —The Nerd Daily

“It’s a joy of a book.” —The Scotsman

Short

I'm divided. The story is really short, but great. I don't know exactly why it needed to be published as a book. It's almost a footnote. But is great as the rest of the entire story of Lyra and Pan.

Cute but short

Looking forward to the Book of Dust trilogy as this little snip-it was cute but not enough to satisfy my curiosity about what happened to Lyra and Will at the end of the His Dark Materials trilogy.

Backstory is great!

I really liked the backstory of this little novella. I am happy it is published now and I cannot wait for the third book in “His Darker Materials” opus. The conversation between Lyra and Pantalaimon is beautiful. Thank you!

great writing and sound quality

Lovely story with a pleasing voice to tell it, will recommend to friends who haven't heard of the little extra stories after HDM

Good but too short

Fun being back in Lyra and Pan’s world but I wish it was a little bit longer.