OUATITN: What did you think?

[Ian]

Seeing as you'll obviously all be reading it now or very soon ... what did you all think?

[kezmondo]

What a brilliant book, and nothing like the disappointment that was, Lyra's Oxford. The story itself is beautifully constructed and reads with an effortless grace, as you'd expect from a fine writer like Pullman. All of this aside, it was still too short. I was disappointed when I finished the book because it was so good, and went back and re-read it. Also the various documents and cut-outs included are a delight to look at, especially the last few pages about Lyra which made me very curious indeed. Anyway, a must buy for any HDM fan (so basically everyone on this forum)

[Brannick]

I thought that the first half was pretty slow, but once the pace picked up i found it gripping.

I don't like the board game that comes with it though, seems a bit of a wasted opportunity.

[Kyrillion]

Haven't tried the board game yet and I've a feeling I'll be too precious to poke out the playing pieces...

I love this little book almost as much as I loved LO. The meeting between Lee and Iorek is great, the first beats of their friendship being played out. I love how Lee keeps calling him York Burningson. The story is satisfying in terms of events - it feels like it has deeps and currents relating to stuff beyond the story, though. Like the villain being someone who has emerged from Lee's past. And Miss Lund felt like a character whose significance went beyond her brief appearence...

I for one would be perfectly content if Pullman just kept putting out these gorgeous little books (he's said there'll be a green one for Will already) and never got round to The Book of Dust! Mind you, I'm sure the latter will be equally excellent.

[BenMech]

So yeah, the story's okay. There's no reason to play the game, based on rule VIII. You can't really win.

[krebbe]

I thought it was a great little book with lots of subtle references to expand the HDM world and story. I preferred the plot to Lyra's Oxford, probably because it was a little fuller and longer. Lyra's Oxford left you a lot of hints to think about but not as much solid story.

[Soapy]

I for one would be perfectly content if Pullman just kept putting out these gorgeous little books (he's said there'll be a green one for Will already) and never got round to The Book of Dust! Mind you, I'm sure the latter will be equally excellent.

He did? When the hell did he say that?

I quite like the little books too, although I think they're overpriced. I loved the stuff about Lyra and the little very familiar bit about Lee's Winchester being in his hands when he died made me heartstrings go ping ping. I also loved the Hester-Lee banter, and the way that it's Iorek that informs Lee about Hester's true form. It's like Iorek knows something about him when they first meet that Lee likes straight away.

I do agree with someone else's comment that it was slow at first, but picked up pace eventually.

I don't think i'll be playing the game. I'd like to keep it intact.

[Ian]

he's said there'll be a green one for Will already

He did? When the hell did he say that?

As early as here and it's been said several times more officially since. But after TBoD methinks.

[Townie]

Thought it was a good ol' yarn. It has the edge over LO I think. I was surprised at all the cussin' but I suppose westerners would use that filthy language. I liked how Lee and Iorek kept getting each others names wrong.

That McConville was an 'orrible piece of work weren't 'e?! That newspaper cutting was a nice touch although I'm sick to death o' those

[Haku]

Well. I'm member of the french community, I had some difficulties with amazon to have it (a French exiled in Switzerland buying an english book delivered by the german post) and this is with big expectations that I opened the book yesterday evening, and then read it for about two hours.
That was a delicious pleasure to read this new HDM story. Meeting again with Lee and Iorek is a great moment, and I was delighted with the portrait created by Pullman for his two characters, much younger as the are in HDM. Lee is great, a bit naive (that's not the word but I'm unable to find the appropriated word. Anyway I found great hearing him quoting very seriously his navigation guide. 'my watchwords are... ') but with incredible class. Hester is wonderful, giving a very funny final quote in the book. I was also surprised to see a scared Iorek, and in both those behavior described by Pullman I feel some kind of tenderness from the author for them. He let them time to evolve in the nex 35 years. There is also a good story, which makes me think to some eastwood movies. Tough guys, guns, duels and some women. Classic but very well done. A whole, full story which, as Ian said, is sufficient and did not make me feel 'hungry' for more. That's a short book, but it's great and well written.
The book as an object is also beautiful. Just as was LO. Every book should look like it.
And the extra materials are... intriguing. I'm sure Pullman is simply giving clues leading to The Book Of Dust...

Ah, well, I think it's only coincidence, but seeing both Ragnar and Dakota names in the book some months after the movie, made me smile.

[Ian]

Hey Haku, good to hear you liked it as well Thanks for your rather impressive translation of my review on cittagazze.com

[Haku]

Thanks ! That always a pleasure to translate anything related to HDM
It seems that the book could be published in France in September, according to Cittagazze's big boss.
And for me it was the ideal occasion for coming back in an english forum on HDM and share impression on that new book !

[Ian]

And for me it was the ideal occasion for coming back in an english forum on HDM and share impression on that new book !

You should drop by more often - I've begun relying on you for news that I missed!

[Australis]

Spare a thought for those of us down south who have to wait another two weeks or more. Tried in a local Borders bookshop today (hoping they might have them in, but not yet on display) but no luck. Sounds like it's been well presented, and received.

I would imagine that Will's green book (will it have Mary in it?) will be published before TBoD as a final prelude (if you can have that) to his long-time-coming major opus. I hope TBoD is presented in the same (but obviously larger) form that LO and North come in, and not just as another novel with a pretty cover.

I know this is jumping the gun, but will TBoD be the end? Will PP finally have said all he wants to on Lyra, Will, and Dust, and move on to other things, or will he find that they won't let go of him like they won't let go of us? We probably won't find that out for a long time yet.

[Grumman]

I wasn't as excited about the release of this one as I remember I was about the release of Lyra's Oxford. I was planning to buy it through Amazon one of these days, while in the case of Lyra's Oxford I preordered it weeks in advance. However, I happened to walk by chance into a bookshop, just with the idea of "killing time," while I waited for someone, and ran into this little book. Of course, although I didn't intend to buy anything, I walked out with it. I kept it to read it in the weekend, which only took me a few minutes.

As I wrote in the main BttS page, it's a shame Pullman is such a lazy writer, being so good. I wouldn't call Once Upon a Time in the North a literary event, but it was delightful to read the story of Leigh Scorby and York Burnyson. Since I know few people have read it, I won't give much away, except to mention it is a well justified story in the set, and fits in seamlessly in the general story. It was certainly not a disappointment.

[Kyrillion]

As I wrote in the main BttS page, it's a shame Pullman is such a lazy writer, being so good.

That's unfair. He publishes at a resonable rate. You probably only notice the gaps particularly between his books because you're impatient for more Pullman! Mind you, I did start reading HDM when I was twelve and finish when I was nineteen... lucky that HDM appeals to all ages really.

[Riali]

I got my copy last night, and just finished it. I thought it was lovely. I didn't like it as much as Lyra's Oxford, but it is still a perfectly delicious little story.

I rather think the story is meant to be Lyra's Dissertation, isn't it? Granted, it doesn't exactly have a scholarly tone, but she's not called Silvertongue for nothing. I'm particularly appreciative of her titling an adventure story "Patterns of trade etc, etc."

The other thing I noticed was that perhaps we have to rethink the consensus we came to in anther thread, (We were talking about the Golden Monkey, and Mrs. Coulter's origins, if I remember correctly) about daemons only being able to take the form of animals that people have seen, or are aware of. I suppose Lee could've seen an Arctic Hare, or a picture of one, and then forgotten, or not recognized the form in Hester, but that seems shaky.

And on the subject of Hester, just in case we didn't all know already, she really is fabulous. I loved the part where she took on the rattlesnake daemon!

I very much hope we meet Miss Lund and Lieutenant Haugland again too, I'd like to know what becomes of them. (Note: Do you suppose there's any chance that they are Mrs. Coulter's parents? Killed soon after her birth, leaving her to be raised in the church, etc. Miss Lund's strange magneticism made me wonder...)

[AUST]

I thought it was excellent-a lot to think about in it (not quite as many riddles as LO) but very good

[Jez]

I enjoyed it a lot, more than Lyra's Oxford. Hester was great and I loved how it was Iorek who told Lee what her form really was.

[Grumman]

I very much hope we meet Miss Lund and Lieutenant Haugland again too, I'd like to know what becomes of them. (Note: Do you suppose there's any chance that they are Mrs. Coulter's parents? Killed soon after her birth, leaving her to be raised in the church, etc. Miss Lund's strange magneticism made me wonder...)

I'd certainly be quite concerned about their fate. Maybe they were forced to emigrate, so the idea of them being Mrs. Coulter's parents isn't entirely far fetched.