The Book of Dust by Phillip Pullman

The prequel to "His Dark Materials" came out around the 20 year anniversary of The Golden Compass. It was a nice gift to dedicated fans, but it is not a necessity to diving in and enjoying the majesty of the original trilogy. 

With The Book of Dust, we get the origin story of Lyra Belaqua, heroine of "His Dark Materials." We get to briefly meet her parents Lord Asriel and Mrs. Coulter, but neither character sticks around long enough to change the fundamentals of their original depictions. While dust is in the title, we actually do not learn too much more about Dust.

The main characters are actually the young Malcolm Polstead and Alice Lonsdale. They are inexplicably tasked with taking an infant Lyra to her father on the tides of history's second largest flood--just behind Noah's. From Cambridge to London. In a canoe. With a psychopath hot on their heels. No big deal.

This book departs from the metaphysical of the original series. We don't learn much more about the bonds of daemons and humans or Rusakov particles than published 20 years ago. Instead, The Book of Dust is chock full of good old-fashioned British mythology. This is a world of the fae. And I have to admit I loved it.

The adventure was captivating. The heroes and villains were well developed. I was cheering and booing in all the right parts. While I constantly recommend "His Dark Materials" to everyone, I'm not sure that I'll point out this prequel. It was good, but I'm not sure that I feel it foundational to the world Philip Pullman created. Time (and a reading of The Secret Commonwealth) will tell , I guess.

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