His Dark Materials: The Complete Collection: now a major BBC TV series

the moment when she first felt a twinge of regret. She knew she shouldn’t be here; she knew what the alethiometer wanted her to do, and it was not this. She stood doubtfully in the doorway.

And as a shaman, I can discover things in the spirit where I cannot go in the body,

The Oblation Board and the Spectres of Indifference are both bewitched by this truth about human beings: that innocence is different from experience. The Oblation Board fears and hates Dust, and the Spectres feast on it, but it’s Dust they’re both obsessed by.”

was a doorway into the spirit world – they’d known about it for centuries – part of the initiation of a medicine-man involved going through and bringing back a trophy

His part was simply to listen. His eyes were locked on hers, and he was paying profound attention; there was no need to respond.

Lyra could see why Farder Coram loved her, and why it was breaking his heart, though she had known neither of those things a moment before. He was growing old; he was an old broken man; and she would be young for generations.

And this time, with a wrenching crack, the knife shattered and the blade fell in pieces to the ground, to glitter on the stones that were still wet with the rain of another universe.

The sound of their yelling echoed in the temple and reinforced their wildness;

she believed that she had to touch every separate slat in every separate bench beside the pond.