Fans of Philip Pullman‘s award-winning fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials probably felt like they had wandered into some wonderful parallel universe when it was announced that the author would be returning with a new companion trilogy to the series called The Book of Dust. But if readers were already eager to cozy up with the first book, La Belle Sauvage, they’re probably now going to be looking for an excuse to take a long drive very soon so they can listen to the audiobook too. Because it is being narrated by actor Michael Sheen, and it sounds perfect.

Penguin Random House Audio tapped Sheen, a self-professed fan of His Dark Materials, to read the new novel that will bring back Lyra Belacqua, daemons, alethiometers, and the Magisterium. And if there were any questions as to why they chose Sheen, this clip of him narrating an excerpt from the novel should answer them for you. Because Michael Sheen was clearly put on this planet to both be a great actor and to read books to us.

With a voice like that they could probably have Michael Sheen read anything and we’d buy it. He’d make a recipe book for gruel sound appetizing. Fortunately though this is for a slightly more interesting story.

But The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage doesn’t hit stores until October 19. Hey, wait a second…that’s today! Huzzah! And you can order the audiobook here.

And if you didn’t already feel lucky enough about all of this, just think of the parallel universes out there where instead of Michael Sheen narrating, they got someone like Bobcat Goldthwait or Fran Drescher instead.

Talk about dark materials.

What other favorite books of yours would you like to hear Michael Sheen read? Tell us which novel would be a fantasy come true for you in the comments below.

Images: Penguin Random House Audio