La Belle Sauvage - Mille feuilles

Hardcover, 496 pages

Published Sept. 18, 2018 by Knopf Books for Young Readers.

ISBN:: 978-1-9848-3057-9

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 father runs 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, Malcom 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. …

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 father runs 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, Malcom 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.

This description comes from the publisher. La Belle Sauvage is the first volume of the Book of Dust trilogy, which takes place in the world of the His Dark Materials trilogy, the first of which is The Golden Compass or Northern Lights.

12 editions

4thace@books.theunseen.city reviewed La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman (The Book of Dust)

A side story to a blockbuster series

3 stars

This prequel to the author's His Dark Materials trilogy is less of a wide-ranging adventure than that story. A few characters recur here, with the infant version of main character Lyra at the center and younger versions of Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter seeming practically identical in character to they way they were portrayed earlier. The first part has a bit of light intrigue and conflict in the setting of fantasy Oxford, the last half takes place on the floodwaters inundating the Midlands and southern England depicting more peril and scary situations for young readers. None of the exotic settings in this version of a parallel Earth show up making it feel like a more miniaturized story. There are a few new characters given fairly detailed traits in the author's style along with one new villain with sinister motives looming over the young heroes Lyra and her two young adolescent …

This prequel to the author's His Dark Materials trilogy is less of a wide-ranging adventure than that story. A few characters recur here, with the infant version of main character Lyra at the center and younger versions of Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter seeming practically identical in character to they way they were portrayed earlier. The first part has a bit of light intrigue and conflict in the setting of fantasy Oxford, the last half takes place on the floodwaters inundating the Midlands and southern England depicting more peril and scary situations for young readers. None of the exotic settings in this version of a parallel Earth show up making it feel like a more miniaturized story. There are a few new characters given fairly detailed traits in the author's style along with one new villain with sinister motives looming over the young heroes Lyra and her two young adolescent caretakers. This made the book feel in a young adult or maybe middle grades book category rather than the more adult style of the earlier trilogy In the series title "Dust" refers to the main supernatural innovation distinguishing the story universe from our own, but none of the players except for the antagonist have much understanding of the concept.

The action of the story does not really fill in a vital part of Lyra's character arc that had thought was missing. I take it that the sequels to this volume jump forward past the timeline of His Dark Materials to fill in later plot points, which I am not eager to learn. The audiobook presentation was pleasant, but ultimately not of the same caliber as what went before, in my opinion.