History LIterature / HisDarkMaterials

The first volume had a 2007 film adaptation, entitled ''Film/TheGoldenCompass'', which was not successful enough to warrant any sequels. [[StillbornFranchise The latter two books were not adapted]] as a result. Apart from this, there have been a two-part stage adaptation of the trilogy, a radio drama adaptation from [[Creator/TheBBC BBC Radio 4]] presented in three two-and-a-half-hour episodes, and unabridged audiobooks of the books (with Pullman himself narrating and a full cast playing the various characters).

* BerserkButton:
** It is inadvisable to steal Iorek's armour while he is passed out. He killed about two people trying to find it and nearly cracked the skull of a sentry after getting it back. It was only his debt to Lyra that kept him from killing the man.
** Don't joke about Will's mother's mental illness. He will break your bones.

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: In the first book, many children have gone missing with not a care from the authorities. When Lyra runs away, the authorities start raiding houses to search for her, leading the ciitizenry to seriously wonder what is so special about this one girl. Speculation and rumors were rampant.

* LustMakesYouDumb: In ''Spyglass,'' Marisa Coulter meets Metatron, the angel in charge of heaven. Once, Metatron was a mortal man and a real womanizer to boot. He's spent millennia now as an angel, and for all that he's lord of heaven, he's starved for all kinds of things. As soon as he sees Marisa, Metatron knows what she is, but she beguiles him so effectively he falls for her anyway.

%%* RetroUniverse: Lyra's world.

* TheRunaway: Both Will and Lyra. Will does so to both protect his mother and because he killed a man. Lyra does so with Mrs Coulter because of too stern punishments on Mrs Coulter's part and because she was just too wild to be tamed at the time.
%%* SacrificialLamb:
%%** Tony Makarios.

* LustMakesYouDumb: In ''The Golden Compass'', Marisa Coulter meets Metatron, who, as an angel, spent millenia without physical contact and was a womanizer and a polygamist on Earth, and then seduced him to draw him into a trap layed by Lord Asriel.

* GodIsEvil: Well, [[spoiler:"The Authority" isn't evil, just senile. He's supplanted by Metatron, though, who does have totalitarian plans for the multiverse. In his prime it seems the Authority was something of a JerkAss too, but when you're the first sentient thing in the universe perhaps you really are AboveGoodAndEvil, or at least can't be blamed for thinking you are.]] This is considered a SubvertedTrope.

* GodIsEvil: Well, [[spoiler:"The Authority" isn't evil, just senile. He's supplanted by Metatron, though, who does have totalitarian plans for the multiverse. In his prime it seems the Authority was something of a JerkAss too, but when you're the first sentient thing in the universe perhaps you really are AboveGoodAndEvil, or at least can't be blamed for thinking you are.]]

%%
''His Dark Materials'' is a {{Fantasy}} trilogy by Creator/PhilipPullman made up of ''Northern Lights'' (original UK title) a.k.a. ''The Golden Compass'' (its US title), ''The Subtle Knife'' and ''The Amber Spyglass''. Omnibus volumes containing all three volumes have appeared.

Pullman has also written several spin-off works:

%%* ReallySevenHundredYearsOld:
%%** The witches.
%%** To the Gallivespians, who only live about nine years, humans embody this trope.

* TechnicallyLivingZombie: Originally referenced as a background detail, but becomes relevant late in the first book and then throughout the series. According to Lord Asriel, there's an African tribe which can permanently separate a human from their dæmon without killing them -- just rendering them a mindless, corpse-seeming slave called a ''zombi''. Later, the General Oblation Board modified this process to create intercision [[spoiler:using a Subtle Knife-like guillotine to sever the connection between human and dæmon forever.]] Intercision never worked on children, but [[spoiler:the doctors at Bolvangar and Mrs. Coulter's bodyguards/soldiers all underwent intercision successfully, meaning that]] Mrs. Coulter and by extension the Church essentially had an army of zombies.

* DoesNotLikeShoes: Lyra and Will share this trait, with the former enjoying the feel of mud under her feet and the latter deliberately roaming Cittagazze barefoot.

* StayWithTheAliens: Averted. No one can stay in any universe that is not their home without aging rapidly.
* SteamPunk: Sort of. Lyra's world has zeppelins, but its "anbaric power" is simply electricity under another name (the substance amber and electricity get switched -- in Lyra's world, they call amber "electrum"). Nuclear power is ''Atomcraft works'' in this world, and there are frequent mentions of "gyrocopters" and similar devices.

* ATaleToldByAnIdiot: The cliff monsters have issues with understanding a snow fox retelling the conversation between Iorek and Serafina about the ''Aesaheetr'' because these foxes only understand the present tense.

* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The series has a spectacular habit of writing in epic battles involving legions of badass combatants like talking polar bears with rocket launchers. And then forgetting about these battles completely. The battle between the [[spoiler:bears/Gyptians]] and the [[spoiler:Church]] is quietly forgotten after the first book. But the absolute worst offender is the third book: the war against [[spoiler:the ''army of God himself'']] is quietly swept under the rug after the author decides that [[spoiler:Will & Lyra's romance]] deserves the spotlight. Sure, [[spoiler:the BigBad dies]], but ''what about the legions of soldiers from an infinite amount of worlds?''

* ImmortalBreaker: The Subtle Knife is prized for its rumoured nature as the God-Killer. (In fact, the name Æsahættr translates roughly from Norse ''as'' "Godslayer".) It was designed as 'just' an AbsurdlySharpBlade and DimensionalCutter, but since it can cut (and kill) [[OurAngelsAreDifferent angels]] and souls, it probably deserves the title. [[spoiler:We'll never know, since the Authority essentially died of old age.]]