Book Review: La Belle Sauvage by Philip Pullman

La Belle Sauvage is the first of The Book of Dust, a separate trilogy set in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials universe. I enjoyed the first series so I figured I'd give this one a try. Here is the Goodreads blurb:

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, Malcolm sees suspicious characters everywhere; Lord Asriel, clearly on the run; enforcement agents from the Magisterium; an Egyptian 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.

Read on for my spoiler-free review.

Overall Impression

This was a good book, though not as gripping or interesting as the original His Dark Materials trilogy. We follow a young boy through his day-to-day life as he starts getting involved, partly by accident, partly by curiosity, in the events surrounding the larger arc. The plot starts a bit slow, but once we start seeing the tensions surrounding the young baby Lyra, things pick up. Some things feel unfinished, but it's possible they'll be addressed in later books, though my understanding is the others take place with a young adult Lyra.

Plot

This is a bit of a slow start. We follow a young boy, Malcolm, in his day-to-day village life and slowly things that to click as we see events that tie back to the original trilogy. His village is not far from the Oxford colleges and we start seeing some scholars and Magisterium folks poking around as the plot thickens and mystery is afoot. It's a bit of a slow, sleepy start, but does pick up towards the later half or third of the book.

Characters

The main character of this is Malcolm Polstead, a young boy that helps out in his family's tavern. He also spends time with other folks in the village, like the nuns in the priory and the carpenter in town. He has his own small canoe (named La Belle Sauvage) which he uses to travel around the rivers. He's particularly mature for a boy of 11 and very observant. We also have Dr. Relf, a scholar in Oxford who is capable of reading the alethiometer and is connected to a broader conspiracy which brings the two together. And of course, there's Lyra, but chronologically this is before the events of The Golden Compass and as such she's just a small baby.

Setting/World Building

This is set in the same universe as His Dark Materials, the last trilogy, and takes place a few years before the start of The Golden Compass. Everyone walks around with their various animal daemons as in the prior books and it's seen as perfectly normal. The Magisterium is a powerful force at control and we see a bit of a darker theme here as they start looking for something and breeding a sense of suspicion in everyone. Overall, the setting is a bit more down-to-earth than the original trilogy, with the focus on Malcolm and a small town near Oxford. Some weird, magical things do happen, but the story doesn't linger on them much. A few things, though, feel unanswered, though it could also be that I don't remember all the details of the original trilogy. 

Final Thoughts

This was a good book on its own, but not nearly as fun as the original His Dark Materials trilogy. The characters are good, I like Malcolm, Dr. Relf, and even the initially taciturn Alice. The plot starts slow, but picks up pace in the later parts and is overall enjoyable. While readers of the original trilogy will be familiar with most aspects, there are a few new things introduced (though in all fairness- I may have forgotten them from the original books). However, we don't expand too much on them given the limited scope of the characters so there's a lot of things left unanswered.