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Critics' Opinion:
Readers' Opinion:
First Published:
Oct 2017, 464 pages
Paperback:
Jun 2019, 464 pages
Book Reviewed by:
Michelle Anya Anjirbag
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Winner of the 2017 BookBrowse Award for Best Young Adult Novel
Philip Pullman returns to the parallel world of his groundbreaking novel The Golden Compass to expand on the story of Lyra
Malcolm Polstead is the kind of boy who notices everything but is not much noticed himself. And so perhaps it was inevitable that he would become a spy….
Malcolm's parents run an inn called The Trout, on the banks of the river Thames, and all of Oxford passes through its doors. Malcolm and his daemon, Asta, routinely overhear news and gossip, and the occasional scandal, but during a winter of unceasing rain, Malcolm catches wind of something new: intrigue.
He finds a secret message inquiring about a dangerous substance called Dust—and the spy it was intended for finds him.
When she asks Malcolm to keep his eyes open, he sees suspicious characters everywhere: the explorer Lord Asriel, clearly on the run; enforcement agents from the Magisterium; a gyptian named Coram with warnings just for Malcolm; and a beautiful woman with an evil monkey for a daemon. All are asking about the same thing: a girl—just a baby—named Lyra.
Lyra is the kind of person who draws people in like magnets. And Malcolm will brave any danger, and make shocking sacrifices, to bring her safely through the storm.
Excerpt
The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage
Eleven-year-old Malcolm lives with his parents at the Trout Inn near Oxford, across the river Thames from Godstow Priory, where the nuns are looking after a special guest. One night his father comes to Malcolm's bedroom.
"Malcolm, you en't in bed yet—good. Come downstairs for a minute. There's a gentleman wants a word with you."
"Who is it?" said Malcolm eagerly, jumping up and following his father out.
"Keep your voice down. He'll tell you who he is if he wants to."
"Where is he?"
"In the Terrace Room. Take him a glass of Tokay."
"What's that?"
"Hungarian wine. Come on, hurry up. Mind your manners and tell the truth."
"I always do," said Malcolm automatically.
"News to me," said his father. But he ruffled Malcolm's hair before they entered the bar.
The gentleman waiting gave him a start, though all he was doing was sitting still by the cold fireplace. Perhaps it was his dæmon, a beautiful silvery ...
BookBrowse Awards
2017
Alice has quickly become one of my favorite characters ever written, and Pullman shows us again that he is a master of writing, not only for children, but for anyone. All readers who come to his books will find something for them. It is not a text that can be easily simplified to mean any one thing, and I am certain that those who come to this series first, and then look to read His Dark Materials, will have an utterly different experience. That is the mark of a good fantasy; it should be approachable for all, but not one-size-fits-all in what a reader might take from it. The narrative should provide us each with our own journey into our perceptions of the world. And in a time of prescriptive fantasies, Pullman has given us an adventure, again, and with it an appeal to the myriad complicated emotions we had when we once were young...continued
Full Review
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(Reviewed by Michelle Anya Anjirbag).
Siân Gaetano
The highly anticipated first book in the companion series to Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials is out today, 17 years after The Amber Spyglass, the final book in the trilogy, was released. 'The [new] story begins before His Dark Materials and continues after it,' Pullman said on NPR's Morning Edition. 'You don't have to read it before you read [the original trilogy]... it's not a sequel, and it's not a prequel, it's an equel.' Equal indeed--the masterful writing, fantastic elements and heroic journey that made the first three books shine are in full force in La Belle Sauvage.
In his first trilogy, His Dark Materials, Philip Pullman brings readers into the story through an intense use of space; he gives us a fantastical Oxford, but described in such a way that readers could visit the real place and trace Lyra's adventures around the city and colleges and thus bring the fantasy world into their own. Pullman's new book, La Belle Sauvage is no different; Godstow Priory, which plays such a large role in shaping the plot and setting of the text, is based on a real place: the Godstow Abbey or Nunnery. The Trout Inn is also real.
Godstow is a hamlet on the River Thames about 2.5 miles northwest of the center of modern day Oxford. The abbey (in our world, at least) was built in the 1130s. Founded by Edith of ...
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