His Dark Materials is technically a fantasy series, sure, if you need to file it neatly on a shelf sorted by genre. But it’s also many other things: a coming of age story, a political epic, a cautionary tale about the failings of religion, and a dimension-hopping sci-fi adventure.
But most of all, it’s complex. Not in a convoluted plot or too many characters to remember sort of way, but in an emotional one. Fitting, one might argue, for a story that’s about to become HBO’s latest adaptation of a best-selling series of novels.
With the show set to make its TV debut later this year, we thought it might be time for a handy primer on His Dark Materials for fans who haven’t read the books yet (but we recommend it, because isn’t it satisfying to have a leg-up on everyone else?). Judging by the trailer, Season 1 of the series seems to be telling the story of the first book, so we’ll keep it spoiler-free and contained to things relevant to that first installment.
Source: IGN.com HBO’s His Dark Materials: What You Need to Know