Ratings225
Average rating4
A delight from start to finish, and a welcome back to the Pullmanesque “biblical and mythic and a kids story but also some mature topics covered” style of writing.
All in all I personally really enjoyed it. The beginning of the story is slow, which at some point felt more like setting the scene took too long, but it does get better and darker as the story progresses, even thrilling throughout the second half.
I loved returning to the world of his dark materials. But I found parts of the writing problematic. Cringeworthy even. I'm in two minds at the minute whether I'll read the next. Will see.
I love the mix of real and unreal, with all these magical beings and places and worlds intermixed and how these children managed to save themselves and Lyra...
I love the daemons. Poor hyena girl... :'( Even though she was insane. I suppose it wasn't her fault.
I really loved this book and love HDM forever, the story was unique and captivating and insightful. Loses a star for some annoying sexist shit.
This is such a cool story. It was quite intense and would be a little frightening to younger readers.
I really enjoy Philip
Pullman's Dark materials books. It was great to get a taste of that world again I hope he writes another one soon.
I was very excited to read this book, but it was a total letdown. The new details about the world of His Dark Materials were interesting, but virtually nothing happened in the entire book.
This is the beginning of a new trilogy that takes place in the same universe as His Dark Materials, and either you don't need me to tell you how wonderful that is or you should go read His Dark Materials right this second, what are you still doing here?
The only reason I didn't read this straight through in about two days is because I was trying to slog through the goddamn Dispossessed.
Not as good as The Golden Compass, but I'm sure it will get there upon rereadings. I liked the first half better than the second half.
On replonge avec plaisir dans l'univers de Lyra, hâte de lire la suite.
NB : c'est mieux (mais pas nécessaire) de lire la trilogie “A la croisée des mondes” avant pour mieux comprendre toutes les nuances et enjeux de cette nouvelle trilogie.
An excellent read. Revisiting the old with a new twist, and Pullman's prose is as engaging as ever. I found myself emotionally invested in the characters and breathing hard whenever a tragedy seemed to happen upon them. It wasn't a ridiculous amount of things, although the things that did happen were thoroughly fascinating. This was very comforting, like sitting in one's favourite armchair with a cup of coffee in a vintage mug. I'm very much looking forward to the sequels.
As a fan of ‘His Dark Materials', I wasn't quite sure I needed a prequel. What story was there to tell? But I was pleasantly surprised. For the most part at least.
‘La Belle Sauvage' is split into two parts. The first half of the book sets up the characters and the story. And the second half is where the interesting stuff actually happens. Personally, I thought the first part was a bit slow. It wasn't bad, I liked the setting and the characters. But it wasn't very exciting to read.
The second part however was really great. It was magical and exciting. There was a chapter that really reminded me of The Witcher for some reason and I loved that! If only the entire book was like this it would be an easy 5/5 for me.
Overall I enjoyed it more than ‘The Amber Spyglass', but probably not as much as ‘Northern Lights' or ‘The Subtle Knife'. But I am now convinced that there are more stories to tell in that world and I can't wait till the next book in the series.
I liked it, but I feel like I would have gotten more out of it if I had read the Dark Materials series more recently. As is, it felt like it referenced a lot of exposition in the series without really building up the universe in the same way. In fact there were even times when I was wondering “Where is Malcolm's daemon?” In some sections is almost felt like Asta was forgotten.
Malcolm and Alice are great characters, I would love to see more of their story. I loved infant Lyra and seeing what baby daemons are like.
However, the second half of the novel is a long canoe ride through a dreamy flooded British landscape, all while being chased by a lunatic and his increasingly maimed and tortured daemon. They find a witch, a faerie and some sort of weird purgatory party. It felt like it dragged on, and then the ending when they are finally rescued felt incredibly rushed. We never see Malcolm reunited with his family or Dr. Relf for example, instead we just have Lord Asriel telling them to go back to the Trout, as he drops Lyra off at the University.
Exciting from cover to cover and – as usual – a wonderful writing style! I hope the second book will be published soon!
An absolute delight to read! Great character development. Especially of Mal. Loved it. Some interesting settings. I want to go back and re-read the original trilogy now. Can't wait for the next instalment.
Hm, maybe 3.5? A warm, affectionate 3.5.
So MUCH IS MADE of Philip Pullman, and I admit that I get swept along by the fansquee. I was excited when I heard this was coming out. I was excited reading it. I've finished it and I'm still pretty pumped.
Even though, lo these 12+ years ago, I remember being disappointed and sort of annoyed by His Dark Materials. I guess I found it all sorts of pedantic, like Richard Dawkins wrapped up in a YA novel? Please, I can only handle one obnoxious Oxford New Atheist preaching to me. Pullman came dangerously close. But, hey, I do think these books are definitely more interesting and better for young readers than boring ol' Harry Potter, what with his Big Bad and blah blah. So maybe I'm just the wrong age for it.
For those that haven't yet read any of the Pullmanverse, I recommend those books (despite what I said above) and I recommend this. This can be read as an intro to it, honestly. This book, like His Dark Materials, takes place in Pullman's vivid visions of a weirdo alt universe Oxford, which has all the charm and romance of THIS universe's Oxford (OH BODLEIAN LIBRARY, KISS KISS) coupled with some pretty awesome fantasy elements like daemons (your spirit animal/externalized soul) and a creepy theocratic church-state of England. It's a little steampunk. There are zeppelins. Finding all the ways the alt Oxford matches this-Oxford, as well as placing its time (I think it's the early 1960s?), was fun. Like His Dark Materials, there are edgy elements of danger and threat and moral uncertainty; it doesn't have squeaky plastic Hollywood Morality, but rather presents a complicated, complex world full of many unresolved tensions. By the end, you have SOME sense of who to avoid (definitely the crazy guy whose cackling hyena daemon has a stump for a leg, that guy's trouble), but you also aren't totally sure of who everyone works for, and what their aims are. Which is good. I liked that very much.
The protagonist of this book is Malcolm, a young (11 years old?) kid who's repeatedly described as stolid and good, and is shown to be resilient, resourceful and intelligent. He works at the bar/inn in (alt) Oxford that his parents own, and lovingly polishes, paints and punts his boat, La Belle Sauvage, on the rivers Cherwell and Thames. At one point, he learns that his nun friends at the nearby nunnery are (secretly?) housing a mysterious infant named Lyra. This is not a spoiler, but Lyra is the protagonist of His Dark Materials, so you know this is important. Thus beginneth the plot. As I said, this can be read as a standalone/beginner to the previous series.
There is a LOT going on in this book; some stuff I loved, some stuff I was just like, “hey huh what now”. Which is fine. There's an extended sequence about Malcolm's school getting coopted into a Stasi state of awful fascist children who report on their parents. This wasn't explored enough! There's a veeery weird bit where we run into a, uh, druid witch of Albion or somesuch. So things swerve from Das Leben Der Anderen to the Grimm Bros!? I forgot how psychedelic Pullman can get (remember God in a box?! gosh, that was weird). There's gore. I forgot about that too! Watch out for that! And there's some uncomfortable bits. Like His Dark Materials, kids are put into real danger - which can be very distressing to read.
A note: I listened to the audiobook, and Michael Sheen - my beloved Michael Sheen! - does a GREAT job. He inhabits all the characters; his accents range credibly from American to Russian to northern English to west country English to posh English to etc. He reads with gusto and passion and, honestly, it brought a tear to my eye at times. I feel like Michael Sheen is horribly under-appreciated, so please (1) watch The Damned United, and (2) can someone please make my SPQR/Boudica idea into a movie and have Michael Sheen play the reluctant Roman general!? Because I'm tellin' ya, it'd be a hit.
Anyway, I rate this 3.5 New Colleges out of 5 Magdalens.
Ao twerminar eu sabia que leria a série td de novo: o amor pelo Malcolm e a dúvida sobre Lord não dariam outra opção.
I...don't know. I might come back and give more points later. But His Dark Materials together are probably the most formative books in my life, and the bar might just be too high. Golden Compass was Just Another Fantasy novel when I read it, about the same time that Subtle Knife came out. But the six months between reading Golden Compass and Subtle Knife were very formative in my life (it was the transition from middle to high school) and so in many ways, reading Subtle Knife is deeply and fundamentally associated with starting to see symbolism in books, starting to ask existential questions about myself. Amber Spyglass was published just after my freshman year of college, and I read it multiple times back-to-back that summer, pondering the purposes of existence. Two years later, I saw each half of the stage production multiple times in the London National Theatre, and did the backstage tour twice. I have signatures of all of the actors. The altheiometer inset is framed on my wall, and it's not a coincidence that my avatar here is an altheiometer. HDM really formed who I am, how I interact with the world and how I read.
La Belle Sauvage, for now, at least, is Just Another Fantasy Novel. I have some specific concerns: the female characters have basically no agency (a major disappointment, after Lyra); the antediluvian portion of the novel really drags, with a few Whizbang!Fantasy moments but no real depth and the opportunity to use Daemons and worldbuilding to make the villain hair-raisingly creepy instead of just lazily using rape to signal moral corruption was passed over. But honestly, I could overlook all of those. My biggest disappointment was that there just wasn't much there there. I don't know if it's me – that I'm older and less malleable by a book – whether this book really is shallow, or whether it's set-building and the best is yet to come...
This is probably a five-star book, though I can't help but compare it to The Golden Compass / Northern Lights (the first book of the His Dark Materials trilogy), which is hard to beat. I also probably expected too much—I have been anticipating this book for about twelve years.
I was also a little surprised by the use of so many horror tropes, especially the way the main villain, increasingly injured and insane, kept popping back up to terrorize the protagonists.
Still, I found Malcolm endearing (albeit perhaps a little too much like Will), and I am looking forward to the next two volumes.
I love the original trilogy. The Golden Compass was one of the books that restarted my love for reading/audiobooks. When I heard Pullman was writing a new series I couldn't wait. When I read it, it felt very much in the same world. There were mysteries that organically unraveled to open new possibilities in the world while introducing the characters. This one had a lot of groundwork being laid that I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes in the next book.
I love the original trilogy. The Golden Compass was one of the books that restarted my love for reading/audiobooks. When I heard Pullman was writing a new series I couldn't wait. When I read it, it felt very much in the same world. There were mysteries that organically unraveled to open new possibilities in the world while introducing the characters. This one had a lot of groundwork being laid that I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes in the next book.