Northern Lights cover art

Northern Lights

His Dark Materials, Book 1

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About this listen

The classic recording of Northern Lights, read by Philip Pullman and a full cast of narrators.

'Without this child, we shall all die.'

Lyra Belacqua lives half-wild and carefree among the scholars of Jordan College, with her daemon, Pantalaimon, always by her side.

But the arrival of her fearsome uncle, Lord Asriel, draws her to the heart of a terrible struggle - a struggle born of stolen children, witch clans and armoured bears.

As she hurtles towards danger in the cold far North, Lyra never suspects the shocking truth: she alone is destined to win, or to lose, the biggest battle imaginable.

The full cast of narrators includes: Philip Pullman, Joanna Wyatt, Rupert Degas, Alison Dowling, Douglas Blackwell, Jill Shilling, Stephen Thorne, Sean Barrett, Garrick Hagon, John O'Connor and Susan Sheridan.


Brought to you by Penguin.

©1995 Philip Pullman (P)2021 Penguin Audio

 Coming of Age Fantasy Fiction Literature & Fiction Science Fiction & Fantasy Witchcraft

Critic reviews

Read by Pullman himself and a full cast including Julian Glover and Stephen Thorne, this is glorious listening.
All stars
Most relevant
There is a bonus interview at the end which I assume is nice for anyone who's already read the books, but I had to turn it off as it started discussing things beyond the first book. This should be moved to a later audiobook, or prefaced with a spoiler alert.

As for the book itself, very imaginative and excellently voiced

Spoilers in Bonus Interview

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Avoid listening to any of the interview with the author at the end. Thought it was a pretty cool bonus for book ONE, but got served with a big old end of the story spoiler, wish they’d kept the interview for the end of book three! Still enjoyed the story apart from knowing part of what happens.
I love that Philip Pullman narrated this and the full cast were brilliant too, really brought the story to life.

My Favourite of the Trilogy, BUT….

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an excellent book, I listened to it with my son. we both really enjoyed it, looking forward to the next book.

Brilliant

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Interesting magic, characters have different voices and personalities, interesting ending that makes you wanna read the next one, holds a good pace, I like to listen at 1.2 speed.

Quite enjoyable

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Lyra is a once in a lifetime character and this is majestic storytelling. Wonderfully read by Philip Pullman and, for the most part, by the cast too.

I was sorry Audible had not fixed an issue where the editor had left no space between sections and chapters but I guess this all had to fit on as few CDs as possible back in the day! Still, this tale cannot be diminished! Dark and magnificent.

One of the great stories of our time

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