Once Upon a Time in the North

A prequel to His Dark Materials, although it does well enough as a stand-alone book. If you’re not familiar with Philip Pullman, he’s been described as a sort of “Anti-Tolkien, Anti-C.S.Lewis, Anti-J.K. Rowling” fantasy author, based on his atheism. I’m not sure I buy that; Pullman’s world doesn’t come across as anti-religious as much as anti-totalitarian.

In Once Upon A Time In The North, we’re introduced to Lee Scoresby and Iorek Byrnison, both of whom figure prominently in His Dark Materials. I can’t go much further without introducing spoilers, but I found this a quick and enjoyable addition to the Pullman canon.

The reason Northern Lights was the best book out of the entire trilogy "His Dark Materials" was the world it was set in. Philip Pullman weaved one of the most complex and enjoyable alternate universes I've ever read: a 19th century-style world on the brink of an industrial revolution, dominated by a Calvinist Church. A world of adventure and antiquity, where university professors discuss scientific expeditions from the comfort of Oxford smoking rooms, where the outskirts of civilisation are ruled by witches and sapient polar bears, where every human is accompanied by an animal spirit representing their inner soul.

As short as it is, Once Upon a Time in the North gives us a welcome return to that world - in particular, to the rugged and show more dangerous Arctic wilderness that was the setting for most of Northern Lights. The story is set thirty-five years before the trilogy, and details the first meeting of the Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby and the armoured bear Iorek Byrnison. Lee crash-lands his balloon on a frozen Russian island in the midst of a mayoral election, and is quickly pulled into the web of politics and power struggles between the Russian customs agency and the security forces of the local mining corporation.

This is mostly a short adventure story, with a nice setting and nifty action scene. The only part I disliked was the actual meeting of Lee and Iorek itself, which supposedly the entire book revolves around. Lee agrees to help a Dutch ship captain battle the unjust ruling of the harbourmaster, and Iorek joins them simply because he was nearby and wanted to help for no apparent reason. The rest of the story is solid, though - I especially liked the worldbuilding for North America that was detailed in Lee's past, since the alternate New World never really got a look-in during the main trilogy.

As with Lyra's Oxford, the previous supplement book, the text is scattered throughout with "fragments" relating to the storyline: a few pages from a navigation manual, a label from a bottle of cognac, a cargo receipt and so on. These add welcome touches to the book, as do the frequent illustrations done in an appropriate Nordic woodcut style.

Overall, a nice little addition to the collection, albeit at an exorbitant price. I just wish he'd hurry up and finish the Book of Dust already. show less

I always enjoy revisiting the world of Pullman's His Dark Materials. It's such a richly imagined place, and the idea of the daemons is so compelling. You also can't help but fall for the characters who, though flawed, are heartfelt people at the core, and always stand up for what's right. I felt drawn to Lee Scoresby, Hester, and Iorek Byrnison in the trilogy, and this little tidbit about how they met was very satisfying. I also enjoyed the "extras," like in Lyra's Oxford, although the board game seems a bit odd - though maybe I'd like it if I actually played it.

I can't help but think this is a very mature chidren's book, what with the adult characters and situations, as well as the aeronautical and political details. It seems like a show more book for Pullman fans who have grown up since HDM came out. show less

The story in this volume is nearly twice as long as that in Lyra's Oxford, which is nice. And what's better: it's about probably my two favorite supporting characters in the trilogy, Lee Scorseby the Texan aeronaut and Iorek Byrnison the armored bear! Despite being long-standing friends in the trilogy, they actually don't have all that much interaction, so it's nice to see how they came to be acquainted, which involved political conspiracies and tense shoot-outs, of course. It's a treat to revisit both of these characters; I love good double-acts, and these two are among the best. This is an excellent little addition to the His Dark Materials saga, and I really hope that we get more prequel adventures featuring these two someday. The show more included boardgame is a charming piece of fun, too. show less

A Texas cowboy. A gas balloon. A settlement by the Barents Sea. A polar bear. Local politics. Dirty secrets. And ... Action! Philip Pullman's fantasy of derring-do near the Arctic Circle paints a vivid picture that reads like a film script synopsis as well as playing in the mind's eye like a graphic novel. Set some 35 years before the events in the His Dark Materials trilogy Once Upon a Time in the North directly references a Sergio Leone spaghetti western in its title; like Once Upon a Time in the West we have a frontier town and potential conflict based on land exploitation (oil reserves here instead of a railroad), plus a hero figure determined to defeat a vicious gunslinger with whom he has unfinished business.

But this is where the show more comparisons end. While Pullman may have been inspired by Leone's film, his main purpose is to introduce the story of how the young Lee Scoresby gets to meet Iorek Byrnison, a panserbjørne or fighting polar bear, and how they establish an alliance long before they meet Lyra in Northern Lights. This novella then is a prequel -- unlike the standalone movie -- giving us background on Lee and Iorek's characters and how it is that a cowboy appears to be an accomplished aeronaut in the frozen north.

Pullman has a strong moral conscience which emerges in much of his writing. Here it is the corrupting power of big business, an issue which has long been with us but is even more evident in the 21st century. As Lee is informed by a supporting character,
"The fact is this, Mr Scoresby: there is a struggle going on throughout the northern lands, of which this little island is a microcosm. On the one hand there are the properly constituted civil institutions [...] and on the other the uncontrolled power of the large private companies [...] which are dominating more and more of public life, though they are not subject to any form of democratic sanction." -- Lieutenant Haugland of the Customs and Revenue Board, Novy Odense (pp 87-8)

The "little island" is the community of Novy Odense, but Pullman could equally have been thinking of Britain, which some see as in hock to multinationals. The town itself ("New Odense") is named from the famous Danish town, chosen perhaps because storyteller Hans Christian Anderson is one of the municipality's most famous sons, and maybe also because Odense itself derives from Odin, Norse myth's famous wandering god. That combination of fairytale, myth and traveller no doubt appealed to the author's sense of aptness.

But the story's the thing that grips, much more than speculation about its possible origins. Lee is the archetypal stranger in town when he arrives in his balloon, reminding me a bit of Spencer Tracy in Bad Day at Black Rock. He soon finds that suspicion is endemic among the inhabitants, compounded by an imminent election for mayor and sly individuals who try to befriend him. This being a fantasy he not only has an animal daemon as his other self but he also makes the acquaintance of a talking bear, one who's invaluable in Lee's fight for justice on behalf of a Dutch sea captain. Naturally all the incipient tensions burst out into violent conflict, with a terrific climax in a dock warehouse described in nail-biting detail.

In common with some editions of other volumes in this sequence, Once Upon a Time in the North also incorporates lovely little touches -- 'authentic memorabilia' like letters, receipts and pages from handbooks -- plus a board game called Peril of the Pole, all lovingly recreated by John Lawrence. Without the thrill of the narrative to sustain it they would mean little to the casual reader; but in combination with the tale they hopefully will not only tease any newcomers to Pullman's multiverse but also encourage them to explore further.

http://wp.me/s2oNj1-north show less

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Netgalley.)

Originally published in 2008, ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE NORTH is a prequel to the HIS DARK MATERIALS trilogy. The novella recounts how a twenty-four-year-old Lee Scoresby meets and befriends an equally young Iorek Byrnison. (When this story takes place, the future king of Svalbard's only piece of armor is a helmet.)

Freshly in possession of a balloon he won in a poker game, Lee lands on the small island of Novy Odense in search of work - and quickly stumbles right into the middle of a political scandal. Disgraced former Senator and current Mayoral candidate Ivan Poliakov is running on the wedge issue of purging Novy Odense of its Panserbjørne population. ("Vagrants show more [...] Scavengers, drunkards, many of them. Degraded specimens every one.", as one of his supporters rails.) But inciting bigotry is just a cover - for consolidating and privatizing power. Poliakov is a close ally of Larsen Manganese, and together they've conspired to strip a shipping merchant of his ship and cargo. Honorable to his core, Lee decides to help Captain van Breda escape with his vessel. Enter: Iorek Byrnison, who's no fan of the anti-bear Poliakov.

I think I originally listened to the audiobook of ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE NORTH, and enjoyed it more in that format. Some of the nautical descriptions went over my head, and I guess that's a little easier to take when someone's reading the descriptions to you. Also, young Lee is a little creepier (in a mildly lecherous way) than I remembered, so I docked the story one star for that.

That said: Hester and Iorek!!!!

This gift edition features illustrations by Chris Wormell, which are lovely and do add another dimension to the story. He also did the cover for Helen Macdonald's H FOR HAWK, and the artwork in ONCE UPON A TIME IN THE NORTH has the same vibe.

(The original hardcover edition has much smaller, black and white engravings by John Lawrence, which are also nice. I received a pdf copy of this book for review, so I can't say how the physical copy compares in terms of tactile sensation. The original has a kind of cloth cover that feels expensive. I'm not really sure why the publisher decided to release a "gift" edition, since the original seems perfectly gift-able, but hey, I'm not complaining! More HDM is always a good thing imho.) show less

Lee Scoresby, the incorrigible airship cowboy, has always been one of my favourite characters from Pullman's Dark Materials Universe so I'm glad that the author decided to write and publish his "origin story." Fresh on their adventures in the North, Lee and Hester stumble into one heck of a complicated situation when they land in a small Northern port town. Politics and commerce are the way of life in these booming little towns, but the law has taken something of a beating with these influences. Lee is, as always, a staunch supporter of doing the right thing, and when he runs into an old gunslinger foe his reputation might just be his downfall.