On This Page
Description
Lyra and Pantalaimon (now a pine-marten) are back at Oxford, but their peace is shattered by Ragi, the daemon of the witch Yelena, who is searching for a healing elixir to cure his witch.Tags
Recommendations
Member Recommendations
rosylibrarian Both books are related to Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' series and reference many of its beloved characters.
40
Member Reviews
I wasn’t particularly impressed by this short novella when I first read it (see my review of the standard edition for an examination of the major narrative and themes), but I hoped that Chris Wormell’s woodcut-inspired illustrations would enliven the story. I still remain disappointed with the lack of Oxford exploration in the story (seriously misleading title!), but thankfully the accompanying pictures did a decent job of brightening the narrative. The cover in particular is a luscious introduction, depicting Lyra and Pan overlooking the sunset-drenched Oxford in which they run rampant, which shows a particular care by Wormell to set the restive but eventually action-packed tone of the forthcoming story. Within the pages, the bulk show more of his illustrations are mixed format, some being interleaved as full-page pastiches and others being inset with the margins, with a final few scattered artfully within the text. All of the imagery ties in neatly to the story and Wormell’s signature style accents the slightly antiquated narrative tone well, which makes for a much more engaging read than the straight-text version. In particular, I found the full-page images to be the stunners of the volume, as the careful composition and action depicted therein allowed for a fully immersive visual experience, but even the smaller images utilising imagery from the natural world (birds, greenery, etc) were a lively visual treat. Concluding the volume were a selection of admittedly random “other things” that may or may not be connected to the story told in the book. Considering the large scope of Pullman’s worldbuilding, the concept of gathering some literary and visual detritus (if you will) is actually a calculated and neat move; will we end up travelling alongside Lyra to the North again, who is Angela Gorman, and what events are occurring in the Levant? These places may be closer off than they first appear, and for those of us who continued on reading with the (still forthcoming) Book of Dust series there are some tantalising clues to be gathered! show less
I haven't quite outgrown my love of pop-up books and books with pieces you can pull out of them, so I was delighted to come across this little gem. It contains a (very) short story set in the same universe as Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and an assortment of maps, postcards, and random dictionary pages that either accompany it or just add more depth to the mythical Oxford he's constructed.
For Oxonians, it's particularly fun to spot the differences, and retrace Lyra's steps – map in hand – imagining a world with Daemons and witches and University lectures on alchemy.
For Oxonians, it's particularly fun to spot the differences, and retrace Lyra's steps – map in hand – imagining a world with Daemons and witches and University lectures on alchemy.
The majority of this slim volume is taken up by the short story "Lyra and the Birds", which tells what a fifteen-year-old Lyra and Pantalaimon get up to while the former studies at Oxford. It's a nice little story, featuring the Lyra we know and love a little older and a little wiser, though thankfully not too much of either. I like the bonus features, too, despite the fact that I'm not quite certain what they all have to do with anything.
I was totally expecting this mini companion book to be a Lyra's diary or her thoughts about her life in Oxford, but much to my disappointment it proved to be a simple adventure story. Lyra and Pan (her daemon) are beset by a frantic witch's bird-daemon who insists that they visit an alchemist who lives a few neighbourhoods away in the hopes of helping his mistress. Little do Lyra and Pan realize, they are walking into a trap and are only saved by their own (smart) hesitation about rushing into the situation headlong and by good timing by a brave swan. Who knows why the witch is after the two of them (her daemon was very insistent, so clearly they were the target of the ruse), but clearly Pullman has some alternative ideas about the show more Witch clans than what was expressed in the Dark Materials trilogy. Some clans may have allied with the humans then, but clearly some are as evil as prejudiced people assume. I don't think Pullman quite had his ideas put together for this story, because it really doesn't give us much to work with in the long term. It doesn't really add to the previous story lines (as did the other companion novella, which gave us a character's back story), and really didn't develop the idea about the complexity of the witch clans or the new character of the alchemist. This could have been the start of another great novel (Lyra going to school, while balancing her adventures, learning more about the witches, dealing with the aftermath of the wars, learning magic, etc), but Pullman didn't quite give it enough space to grow into its potential. show less
Don't read this expecting the epic grandeur of the final battle in The Amber Spyglass. Instead, take this for what it is: as the title suggests, this is a glimpse of Lyra Silvertongue's home town. So, we get a map, which it is instructive to compare with its modern fold-out, full-colour relief counterpart in this world. We get the deliciously realistic post-cards and brochures and cruise timetables that support what we know from the trilogy and hint at what we don't. And we have, almost incidentally, a short dream-like story that shows that, for Lyra back in her own world, things aren't as happy ever after as we might have expected.
Yes, it is a mild disappointment if you were looking for more action. But, on the plus side, the hardback show more is a handsome volume to own, to hold, to peruse; and, along with Once Upon a Time in the North, it shows that Pullman has not abandoned the worlds that, God-like, he has created and that in time we may hope for something a little more substantial than these tasters. show less
Yes, it is a mild disappointment if you were looking for more action. But, on the plus side, the hardback show more is a handsome volume to own, to hold, to peruse; and, along with Once Upon a Time in the North, it shows that Pullman has not abandoned the worlds that, God-like, he has created and that in time we may hope for something a little more substantial than these tasters. show less
Here's something we've all been waiting for - a chance to go back to Lyra's Oxford and have another look round.
It seems to be just as we left it at the end of Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, except perhaps Lyra is a little subdued now with her extraordinary adventures behind her:
Lyra didn't often climb out of her bedroom window these days. She had a better way on to the roof of Jordan College: the Porter had given her a key that let her on to the roof of the Lodge Tower.
It's the best place to sit, out of sight, to watch for the starlings: 'They didn't seem like individual birds, or even individual dots of black against the blue; it was the flock itself that was the individual. It was like a single piece of cloth, cut in a very show more complicated way that let it swing through itself and double over and stretch and fold in three dimensions without ever tangling, turning itself inside out and elegantly waving and crossing through and falling and rising and falling again.'
This time, in this flock, there's trouble. A witch's daemon is hurtling through the starlings evidently in search of Lyra. And the flock are savaging the daemon.
What's amiss? Fortunately we can rely on Lyra to find out, and sort it out.
This is only a short story but it does show us very well that although the war has been fought and won it still leaves a track across everybody's life and consequences continue to flow, whether we know it or not. For wars split not only worlds, but also communities and even families.
And what of the mysterious ephemera that turn up, tucked inside the covers of this old Baedecker? What part do they play in this story? Well, actually,
I'm not sure they play any part directly, so we may hope, perhaps, that there are more stories to come from Philip Pullman set in Lyra's Oxford.
'Everything means something,' Lyra said severely. 'We just have to find out how to read it.' show less
It seems to be just as we left it at the end of Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy, except perhaps Lyra is a little subdued now with her extraordinary adventures behind her:
Lyra didn't often climb out of her bedroom window these days. She had a better way on to the roof of Jordan College: the Porter had given her a key that let her on to the roof of the Lodge Tower.
It's the best place to sit, out of sight, to watch for the starlings: 'They didn't seem like individual birds, or even individual dots of black against the blue; it was the flock itself that was the individual. It was like a single piece of cloth, cut in a very show more complicated way that let it swing through itself and double over and stretch and fold in three dimensions without ever tangling, turning itself inside out and elegantly waving and crossing through and falling and rising and falling again.'
This time, in this flock, there's trouble. A witch's daemon is hurtling through the starlings evidently in search of Lyra. And the flock are savaging the daemon.
What's amiss? Fortunately we can rely on Lyra to find out, and sort it out.
This is only a short story but it does show us very well that although the war has been fought and won it still leaves a track across everybody's life and consequences continue to flow, whether we know it or not. For wars split not only worlds, but also communities and even families.
And what of the mysterious ephemera that turn up, tucked inside the covers of this old Baedecker? What part do they play in this story? Well, actually,
I'm not sure they play any part directly, so we may hope, perhaps, that there are more stories to come from Philip Pullman set in Lyra's Oxford.
'Everything means something,' Lyra said severely. 'We just have to find out how to read it.' show less
Two years after His Dark Materials, Lyra and her daemon are on the roof of an Oxford university when they spot a flock of birds attack a witch's daemon. Saving the daemon from the onslaught they promise to help it find a man in Jericho, but why is it here and what does it want and can it be trusted?
A nice little tale set in the Materials universe, all too short but wonderfully familiar. I guess it'll just have to do until the Book of Dust comes out. OH WAIT.
A nice little tale set in the Materials universe, all too short but wonderfully familiar. I guess it'll just have to do until the Book of Dust comes out. OH WAIT.
Members
- Recently Added By
Published Reviews
ThingScore 75
In this tiny, tantalizing sequel to the trilogy ''His Dark Materials,'' Philip Pullman is flying without a net -- or, rather, without the help of such flamboyant creations as a knife that can cut through worlds and a machine that can reveal truth from lies.
added by Shortride
The 49-page story is cut from the living wood of the author's imaginative world and comes instantly to life in its own right. . . .What I expect to remember longer is a new image from the story, of all the animate creatures of the city striving clumsily to protect this obdurate girl, in gratitude for what she has done for their universe.
It is one of those grand narrative strokes that Pullman show more can sometimes pull off with such casual-looking ease and faith. This book is that gift working in miniature. show less
It is one of those grand narrative strokes that Pullman show more can sometimes pull off with such casual-looking ease and faith. This book is that gift working in miniature. show less
added by lilithcat
Lists
Books Read in 2016
4,666 works; 197 members
Books Read in 2017
4,249 works; 130 members
Books Read in 2020
4,379 works; 124 members
Books Read in 2021
5,361 works; 114 members
Books Read in 2022
5,226 works; 115 members
Books Read in 2025
4,128 works; 98 members
Author Information
90+ Works 151,116 Members
Philip Pullman was born in Norwich on October 19, 1946. He graduated from Oxford University with a degree in English. He taught at various Oxford middle schools and at Westminster College for eight years. He is the author of many acclaimed novels, plays, and picture books for readers of all ages. His first book, Count Karlstein, was published in show more 1982. His other books include: The Firework-Maker's Daughter; I Was a Rat!; Clockwork or All Wound Up; and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. He is also the author of the Sally Lockhart series and the His Dark Materials Trilogy. He is the author of The Book of Dust, volume 1. He has received numerous awards including the Carnegie Medal and the Guardian Fiction Award for Northern Lights (The Golden Compass), the Whitbread Book of the Year Award for The Amber Spyglass, the Eleanor Farjeon Award for children's literature in 2002, and the Astrid Lindgren Award in 2005. (Bowker Author Biography) show less
All Editions
Some Editions
Awards and Honors
Awards
Series
Work Relationships
Is contained in
Common Knowledge
- Canonical title
- Lyra's Oxford
- Original publication date
- 2003
- People/Characters
- Lyra Belacqua; Pantalaimon; Sebastian Makepeace; Yelena
- Important places
- University of Oxford, Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK; Oxford, Oxfordshire, England, UK; Oxfordshire, England, UK
- Epigraph
- '...Oxford, where the real and the unreal jostle in the streets; where North Parade is in the south and South Parade is in the north, where Paradise is lost under a pumping station; where the river mists have a solvent and vi... (show all)vifying effect on the stone of the ancient buildings, so that the gargoyles of Magdalen College climb down at night and fight with those from Wykeham, or the fish under the bridges, or simply change their expressions overnight; Oxford, where windows open into other worlds...'
Oscar Baedecker, The Coasts of Bohemia - First words
- Lyra didn't often climb out of her bedroom window these days.
- Last words
- (Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)And before they went to bed, they put the crumbs out on the windowsill, for the birds.
- Original language*
- Anglais (Royaume-Uni) (Royaume-Uni)
*Some information comes from Common Knowledge in other languages. Click "Edit" for more information.
Classifications
- Genres
- Fiction and Literature, Fantasy, Teen, Young Adult
- DDC/MDS
- 823.914 — Literature & rhetoric English & Old English literatures English fiction 1900- 1901-1999 1945-1999
- LCC
- PZ7 .P968 .L — Language and Literature Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Fiction and juvenile belles lettres Juvenile belles lettres
- BISAC
Statistics
- Members
- 4,292
- Popularity
- 3,522
- Reviews
- 86
- Rating
- (3.46)
- Languages
- 10 — Chinese, Dutch, English, Finnish, French, German, Italian, Norwegian, Portuguese, Spanish
- Media
- Paper, Audiobook, Ebook
- ISBNs
- 38
- ASINs
- 19