The books further chronicle the adventures of Lyra Belacqua and her battle against the theocratic organisation known as the Magisterium, and shed more light on the mysterious substance called Dust.

It introduces the research by academics and other free-thinkers into Dust, a mysterious subatomic particle related to consciousness, and the origins of Lyra's alethiometer.

[1] The second book, The Secret Commonwealth, was published on 3 October 2019 and is set after the events in the original trilogy with Lyra as a twenty-year-old undergraduate.

[9] In 2017 Pullman stated that The Book of Dust would be a new trilogy, and announced the publication of the first part, La Belle Sauvage,[10] published on 19 October 2017.

[12] The Book of Dust takes place before, during and after the original trilogy; Pullman described it as an "equel", rather than a sequel, which "will begin and end with Lyra".

[13] In Pullman's words the story's main focus is: “the struggle between a despotic and totalitarian organisation, which wants to stifle speculation and enquiry, and those who believe thought and speech should be free”.

Questions like that are of perennial fascination and they haven’t been solved yet, thank goodness.”[3] The first book, La Belle Sauvage, was published in October 2017, and is set around 11 years before Northern Lights.

It introduces the research by academics and other free-thinkers into Dust, a mysterious subatomic particle related to consciousness, and the origins of Lyra's alethiometer.