Daemon Voices

“These essays cast a spell. . . . To read them is to be invigorated by the company of a joyfully wide-ranging, endlessly curious and imaginative mind.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Inspiration can be hard to come by, but on the pages of this essay collection, you can find it in long, deep, refreshing draughts. . . . The essays brim with joy and curiosity—about literature, storytelling, music, science, the universe, and humanity itself.” —Laura Miller, Slate

“A splendid collection . . . literary insights that will enrich and inspire.” —The Wall Street Journal

“[Daemon Voices] reads as if you’re having a highly illuminating conversation with a genius about how the storytelling sausage is made. It’s a portrait of a writer turned inside out, and anyone involved in the same endeavor will feel slightly less insane for having read it.” —Santa Fe New Mexican

“Remarkably astute. . . . A wonderful distillation of decades of writing and thinking about what goes into storytelling. Like his best books, it has a richness of ideas in its wide breadth of topics and illuminating conclusions.”—The A. V. Club

“Pullman offers meaty but always lucidly argued ruminations on the nature of story. . . . Infused with abundant wisdom, provocative notions, and illuminating insights.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“Pullman addresses ‘the business of the storyteller’ with the quiet confidence of a master craftsman sharing the tricks of his trade. . . . The essays delineate and defend the real work of fiction to nourish imagination, shape moral understanding, and, above all, delight. . . . The book is a toolbox stacked with generous, sensible advice.” —Publishers Weekly