The Collectors: A His Dark Materials Story (Kindle Single)

The Collectors in an audio version read by Bill Nighy was Audible' Christmas gift to its members this year and I enjoyed Nighy's narration of the tale. It is a short story at only just over thirty minutes so there isn't much time for character development, but the language Pullman uses means that we do get amazingly detailed portrayals of people and places. His expert use of few words, perfectly chosen, is practically a masterclass! The suspense builds nicely and I liked the knowing nod to Lyra's alternate universe. The ending is expectedly bizarre for a seasonal horror tale, but I didn't really buy into it, hence the drop in stars. However a fun listen all the same. Thank you & Merry Christmas Audible!

Basically a ghost story. Well-told and -crafted.
The postscript, in which Pullman gives a short sketch of his path to professional storytelling, and gives some insight into the laws of stories, is also worth reading.

Amazing little story, that raises more mystery behind our favorite HDM villain -- Mrs Coulter

At first I thought this was a story set in Lyra's world -- I rarely read summaries or reviews before starting a book. I find that the surprise and experience of reading is much more enticing. The less I know about a story, the better.

And so there's "The Collectors". The only thing I knew was that it was in relation to Mrs Coulter. Foolish me, I thought this was going to be something like "here, have some questions answered", but I was delightfully wrong. It's a very short story, but the pace is good, the mystery is there and it's absolutely delicious.

Fans of the original trilogy shouldn't skip this one!