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pewterwolf 's review for:
La Belle Sauvage
by Philip Pullman
Don’t know whether to give this 4 star or 5... 4.75 stars???
#Believathon Review taken from The Pewter Wolf
I am so torn over this! Not because it’s bad. It isn’t. It is very, very good. But I don’t know if I should give it four stars or five on here. I STILL DON'T KNOW!!!
Ok, bear with me and let me explain.
I am a fan of His Dark Materials, so reading this felt like coming home, in the same way as me rereading Harry Potter or other series I love. Everything about this feels like coming home and feels so on point. The writing, the darkness (oh goodness, this book was DARK! Far more darker than I was expecting and am pretty sure most, if not all, readers saw the links between how the Nazi recruited children and the League of St Alexander and other horrifying connections), the complex characters (I’m sorry, but I thought Mrs Coulter and her Golden Monkey daemon was complex, meeting Bonneville and his hyena daemon was terrifying! If this gets turned into a TV series, Michael Sheen has to play him!). And speaking of Michael Sheen, his narration is perfection. This is rare in audiobooks. Only a few others are wonderful and become instant “I must pay attention to you”.
However, there is something that is stopping me going “This is a five star read!” and I know other people have said this. This is a starter book. It’s setting things up for the books later in the series. Yes, it explains several questions we had from His Dark Materials and it gives more depth to the world of babies and daemons. But it does feel like a set-up book, an introduction, very much how I feel about [b:Northern Lights|70947|Northern Lights (His Dark Materials, #1)|Philip Pullman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327235223l/70947._SY75_.jpg|1536771]. Both are setting up the series and it’s only when we get the end that we are going to see why the first book was so important.
I know [b:The Secret Commonwealth|19034943|The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)|Philip Pullman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563043403l/19034943._SY75_.jpg|27058954] is set when Lyra is 20/21 and we do meet Malcolm again (if he’s 11 in La Belle Sauvage, he will be in his early to mid 30s) and see the fallout of some of the decisions he makes (Philip Pullman has said that some consequences will be felt instantly, others will take years to come to the forefront) so I’m intrigued to see what Philip Pullman does…
But I am very excited to return to this world with Secret Commonwealth. I’ll get the audiobook and will try and listen to it in the New Year (I’ve requested a good four/five audiobooks from my library and, sadly, they need my attention first [NetGalley Proofs am very behind on!]…)
#Believathon Review taken from The Pewter Wolf
I am so torn over this! Not because it’s bad. It isn’t. It is very, very good. But I don’t know if I should give it four stars or five on here. I STILL DON'T KNOW!!!
Ok, bear with me and let me explain.
I am a fan of His Dark Materials, so reading this felt like coming home, in the same way as me rereading Harry Potter or other series I love. Everything about this feels like coming home and feels so on point. The writing, the darkness (oh goodness, this book was DARK! Far more darker than I was expecting and am pretty sure most, if not all, readers saw the links between how the Nazi recruited children and the League of St Alexander and other horrifying connections), the complex characters (I’m sorry, but I thought Mrs Coulter and her Golden Monkey daemon was complex, meeting Bonneville and his hyena daemon was terrifying! If this gets turned into a TV series, Michael Sheen has to play him!). And speaking of Michael Sheen, his narration is perfection. This is rare in audiobooks. Only a few others are wonderful and become instant “I must pay attention to you”.
However, there is something that is stopping me going “This is a five star read!” and I know other people have said this. This is a starter book. It’s setting things up for the books later in the series. Yes, it explains several questions we had from His Dark Materials and it gives more depth to the world of babies and daemons. But it does feel like a set-up book, an introduction, very much how I feel about [b:Northern Lights|70947|Northern Lights (His Dark Materials, #1)|Philip Pullman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327235223l/70947._SY75_.jpg|1536771]. Both are setting up the series and it’s only when we get the end that we are going to see why the first book was so important.
I know [b:The Secret Commonwealth|19034943|The Secret Commonwealth (The Book of Dust, #2)|Philip Pullman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563043403l/19034943._SY75_.jpg|27058954] is set when Lyra is 20/21 and we do meet Malcolm again (if he’s 11 in La Belle Sauvage, he will be in his early to mid 30s) and see the fallout of some of the decisions he makes (Philip Pullman has said that some consequences will be felt instantly, others will take years to come to the forefront) so I’m intrigued to see what Philip Pullman does…
But I am very excited to return to this world with Secret Commonwealth. I’ll get the audiobook and will try and listen to it in the New Year (I’ve requested a good four/five audiobooks from my library and, sadly, they need my attention first [NetGalley Proofs am very behind on!]…)