Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Random House for the ARC of this book.

Philip Pullman is publishing a third short story companion book to his His Dark Materials series. He wrote this story in 2004 but is releasing it now because it’s a good companion piece to his latest book The Secret Commonwealth. It concentrates on the relationship between Lyra and Pan following the events of the end of the original trilogy. The tensions in this relationship are the central theme of The Secret Commonwealth.

It’s not a very exciting or dramatic story, but it is interesting to see how these ideas were swirling around Pullman’s head 16 years before he wrote his latest book when he has no idea he would be writing another trilogy set in this world. It’s a nice book to own if you, like me, are a His Dark Materials completist, However, sadly nothing Pullman has written since has come close to the perfection of the original trilogy.

The story itself was ok nothing special like the other Lyra books. Luckily this was an ARC copy so there was no cost to myself had I had to pay for this I would have been very annoyed. This book can be read in 10 minutes so basically find a spot in a book shop and read it there for free. Why the cost for essentially a few pages padded out with admittedly lovely drawings. This could have been given away free during the main lockdown period and would have been appreciated. Publishing now is all about making money for the author and publisher. Truly not worth the money a huge letdown.

spoiler alert ** Pullman says in his afterword,that the world of lyra never left him,even when working on other things.
The draw of Lyras world will probably never leave me,and with a new season about to arrive on tv,this was perfect timing for this book.
Throwing in most of the familiar names,its a very short piece on trying to figure out how Pan and Lyra could part.
It possible gives more questions than answers,but I read it with a smile on my face,and was left wanting more.
Theres got to be a full sized book soon?

[Gifted]
A (very, very) short and sweet interlude to the Book of dust trilogy, with Lyra trying to heal her relationship with Pan, who is keeping secrets from her. Beautifully illustrated with wood cuts (almost more of these than words!), this is a little treasure.