La Belle Sauvage – Philip Pullman

Read “The Golden Compass” first.

About a decade before the events of TGC, six-month-old Lyra is placed in the care of a convent (or, rather that world’s equivalent) near Oxford. “La Belle Sauvage” follows Malcolm, a boy who lives in an Inn across the river, and who is greatly taken with the baby. Factions within the Magesterium (the religious authorities, who have recently become very oppressive) are trying to find and seize Lyra, and Malcolm’s efforts to keep her safe play out against a larger struggle that is more apparent to the reader than to a boy Malcolm’s age. LBS is the first book in a trilogy, and at its end part of the stage has been set for TGC. It is not at all apparent where “The Book of Dust” will go from there.

“La Belle Sauvage” is well-crafted, and repays the reading. As of the end of this book, “The Book of Dust” does not appear to be as large or as splendid a story as “His Dark Materials”. Perhaps that will change in the coming books.