By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
As a literary genre, fantasy is one of the oldest and most recent. Although modern fantasy only began to be recognised as a distinct genre in the late twentieth century, thanks largely to the popularity of J. R. R. Tolkien and his imitators, its roots can be traced back millennia. Indeed, Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, often regarded as the foundational texts of western literature, are ‘fantasy literature’ in their incorporation of magical or supernatural elements and their focus on epic stories, perilous journeys, and mighty battles.
, is not a novel, nor even a novella. Nor is it technically new: it dates from 2004, although it is only being published now. The action of this very short book (it’s barely 70 pages, with numerous illustrations) takes place just after the events of the original trilogy, His Dark Materials, and before the events of The Secret Commonwealth, the second novel in Pullman’s new trilogy, The Book of Dust.