Phillip Pullman: His Dark Materials novellas - Lyra's Oxford, Once Upon a Time in the North, Serpentine & The Collectors

Lyra’s Oxford:

A lovely little vignette. Characters appear whom we only meet until much later/in the second trilogy but the depiction of Lyra and her relationship with her Daemon (central in this episode) is powerfully and movingly drawn. I much like the use of a variety of different documents – a postcard, a PR brochure for a Middle Eastern cruise. In addition, the occasional annotations of these documents (intriguingly, not always clear by whom) is a very effective touch.

Once Upon a Time in the North:

A wonderfully thrilling Boy’s Own/Indiana Jones style episode, which shows the perfect way in which Lee Scoresby and Iorik meet. It’s very cinematically written and comes across superbly vividly. The ending, with the revelation as to exactly what sort of Daemon Hester is, is both comic and touching. I I loved the brief dark foreshadowing with the reference to Lee’s death.

Serpentine:

The first part of this brief little story did not really ‘work’ for me; I could not see where it was going or why but the latter part – a touching and very powerfully thoughtful discussion between Lyra and her Daemon with crucial references back to their first separation – was very fine. It filled in some emotional gaps about the exact nature of the relationship (and the variety of relationships possible) between a person and their Daemon.

The Collectors:

 A marvelously creepy and sinister little gem. Much is left unsaid but you can fill in many gaps but a number of intriguing ones remain. It reminds me, in a way, of The Monkey’s Paw – deliberately, I am sure.