The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman (review)

Ten years before her adventures began in Pullman's The Golden Compass (BCCB 4/96), Lyra, the heroine of that series, was just a six-month-old baby who, even then, had dangerous forces pursuing her. Working at his parents' inn on the river Thames, eleven-year-old Malcolm hears rumors focused on a prophesied child (though no one seems to know exactly what the prophecy is), and he also knows that the nuns in the local priory, whom he frequently visits, just took in a baby. He's therefore worried when all sorts of folks—a former lord chancellor of England, a shady academic, Magisterium agents, a stunningly beautiful woman—show up at the inn and ask about a young infant. Malcolm doesn't have much time to put the pieces together, because soon the river dramatically floods, sweeping him, baby Lyra (for whom he was caring), and fellow innworker Alice into raging waters. Fans of the first series will recognize familiar faces, and they'll likely delight in Lyra's origin story, but Pullman crafts a world and a tale here that requires little knowledge of those books, instead offering a standalone combination of suspense and action. The book can largely be divided into two parts, with the first having Malcolm suss out who Lyra is, why she needs protection, and how he can do the protecting, while the second half is fully devoted to Malcolm and Alice's survival on a raging river as they try to get Lyra to caring hands. This is intricate in plot and heavy in theme: the various players regarding Lyra's fate can at times be overwhelming to track, and the notions of divinity and humanity are interrogated in rather lofty terms. That's classic Pullman, though, so readers who have been missing his specific style will heartily welcome this return to his world. KQG