La Belle Savage

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...

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.

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.

Tout d'abord c'était un bonheur de retrouver cet univers qui avait baigné mon enfance et que je trouve qui n'est plus assez connu et apprécié aujourd'hui. Ce livre m'aura d'ailleurs donné envie de me refaire la trilogie originale avec un regard plus adulte tellement j'ai été surpris par la profondeur des thèmes développés que je n'avais pas forcément compris quand j'étais plus jeune. La Belle Sauvage est un retour aux origines, je ne m'attendais pas du tout à ce qu'il soit aussi proche temporellement de la trilogie originale c'est donc une très bonne surprise sur ce point, mais mes souvenirs étaient devenus trop flous. J'ai apprécié cette lecture mais elle n'a pas eu la même force que la trilogie originale, mais c'était un bonheur pourtant d'avoir tous ces souvenirs qui remontaient à la surface. A choisir j'aurais pris le temps de relire la trilogie originale, mais vu qu'il se passe avant je vais tenter de la relire avec un regard nouveau pour mieux la redécouvrir. Et je suis impatient de lire les deux tomes qui suivront !

2.5 out of 5 stars

Despite Philip Pullman's pronouncement that this is book is an “equal” (not a prequel or sequel) to His Dark Materials, this first volume is most definitely a prequel. In fact, it's so firmly set on creating additional backstory for His Dark Materials characters that it leaves little room for new characters and storylines to shine. I would have much preferred a brand new story set in the familiar world, where known characters and events are merely mentioned in passing...but here we are.

The Book of Dust follows tavern boy Malcolm Polstead and his trusty canoe La Belle Sauvage, as he journeys to aide/protect baby Lyra from the oppressive religious agencies set to snatch her away. He encounters several familiar characters from the original series along the way.

Pullman's writing evokes storytelling of a bygone era. Apart from (occasionally heavy-handed) allusions to present day authoritarian regimes, there is very little here that identifies this as a novel written in contemporary times. It makes it seem like a timeless story and I very much enjoy that aspect of Pullman's style.

Overall, though, this feels like a missed opportunity to chart new territory in an established world. I hope the future novels divert further away from the known storylines and allow Malcolm to leave the baggage of the original novels behind.

See this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

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.

There's always a tension I feel when a beloved book gets revisited by its author after a long time for any sort of companion piece...what if it's just not as great? So I was both excited and wary when Philip Pullman announced a new trilogy, The Book of Dust, set in the same world as his much-beloved His Dark Materials trilogy, and then again when I finally held a copy of the first volume, La Belle Sauvage, in my hands.

La Belle Sauvage is a prequel, as original heroine Lyra Belacqua is just a baby in this one. Our new protagonist is Malcolm Polstead, a relatively normal preteen boy who goes to school, helps out in his parents' pub, likes to explore on the local river in his boat, and sometimes helps out at the nunnery down the road. Two events happen in a short period of time that change his life: the first is the arrival of baby Lyra at the nunnery, and the second is an assassination he sees while boating. Both of these bring the outside world and its rapidly changing politics much closer to home, and soon even school isn't safe. And then, as an epic flood rages, Malcolm, along with Alice, the older girl who works for his parents, find themselves racing to protect Lyra from danger.

This book does a great job of introducing its world (an alternate universe England known as Brytain, which I think is the first time I've seen it given a name, but I haven't read the novellas yet) to a first-timer, as well as providing backstory on characters and situations that returning readers already know: the rise of the power of the Church, Farder Coram, althieometers, Lord Asriel and Marisa Coulter. And while Malcolm is about the same age as Lyra was at the beginning of The Golden Compass, and they both go on an adventure over the course of the book, they're not especially similar characters: while Lyra was high-spirited and bold, Malcolm is quieter and more solitary. He's got a decent amount of pluck, though, and makes an engaging hero that you get emotionally invested in.

I can't really evaluate this book from the perspective of someone who hasn't read the original series yet, but because of the way that the series is structured (this book is first in time, and then the original series, and then apparently the next book in this series will be a sequel to the original series), I'm going to go ahead and recommend it as a good starting place for people who are intrigued by it. The book is appropriate for older kids, but the series eventually takes a strong theological bent which may go over the heads of less mature ones, and may prompt discussions that parents should be ready for. If I'm being perfectly honest, I didn't think this book was as strong as The Golden Compass (I think that one did a better job of world-building), it might not be a fair comparison because that's one of my favorite books of all time. That being said, this is a very good book and an engaging adventure that has me longing for the next one already!

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.