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Once Upon a Time in the North (David Fickling Books) | 
| Author: Philip Pullman
Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
Category: Book
List Price: $12.99
Buy New: $7.33
You Save: $5.66 (44%)
New (30) Used (5) from $7.33
Avg. Customer Rating:  9 reviews
Sales Rank: 449
Media: Hardcover
Reading Level: Young Adult
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 112
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.6 x 0.8
ISBN: 0375845100
EAN: 9780375845109
ASIN: 0375845100
Publication Date: April 8, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
In this new prequel episode from Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials universe, Lee Scoresby--Texan aeronaut and future friend to Lyra Belacqua--is just 24 years old, and he's recently won his hot-air balloon in a poker game. He finds himself floating North to the windswept Arctic island of Novy Odense, where he and his hare daemon Hester are quickly tangled in a deadly plot involving oil magnate Larsen Manganese, corrupt mayoral candidate Ivan Poliakov, and Lee's longtime nemesis from the Dakota Country: Pierre McConville, a hired killer with at least twenty murders to his name.
It's only after Lee forms an alliance with one of the island's reviled armored bears that he can fight to break up the conspiracy in a gun-twirling classic western shoot out--and battle of wits. This exquisite clothbound volume features the illustrations of John Lawrence, a removable board game—Peril of the Pole—on the inside back cover, and a glimpse for Pullman fans into the first friendship of two of the most beloved characters in the His Dark Materials trilogy: Lee Scoresby and armored bear Iorek Byrnison.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 4 more reviews...
 Confused in the North. May 11, 2008
Okay, I did like this book, but I had to give it 3 stars for the inconsistencies that appeared. I remember Iorek telling Lyra that the armored bears are a proud race and that only reason he was working in the town was because they made him drunk and stole his armor, and now here he is, apparently along with several other bears, living in the town and working there. I don't understand? Why are they all there, why are they debasing themselves working for humans instead of being in Svalbard with the other armored bears? Why don't they have all have complete armor, Iorek only has his helmet. I'm confused.
 Once Upon a Time in the North May 1, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I got this for my granddaughters and read it before I gave it to them. We are Pullman fans. Once Upon a Time in the North is a wonderful mix of fantasy and reality with moral and political messages that are right on target in 2008.
Finally - and this one really delivers! Better than I expected. April 29, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Once Upon a Time in the North is a prquel to the His Dark Materials Series of books and, though short - like Lyra's Oxford was - there is some wonderful reading here. Fans of the series will love it. And new readers will seek out the rest of Pullman's works about these characters.
This is one of my favorite Pullman books because it is about Iorek Byrnison and Lee Scoresby's early dealings and this one is western themed, too. Hester, daemon of Lee, is back with all her biting wit and wisdom and Lee Scoresby is merely in his mid 20's in age.
Great reading for all ages.
 Joyous but shor April 22, 2008
2 out of 4 found this review helpful
First things first, let's get the rating out of the way. I give this book four stars simply because it isn't long enough. And I was a little disappointed when I'd finished it because I just didn't want it to stop. Perhaps that's a sign of how good the book actually is.
But to take off that star, one has to consider the reasons why it deserved the full five in the first place. The title should give things away just a little; this is essentially a western short story. And a rollicking good one too, because this is the tale of how Lee Scoresby the aeronaut and the bear Iorek Byrnison first met. The events take place a full thirty-five years before the climax of His Dark Materials, when Lee is but a young man of 24 and newly introduced to the balloon he has recently won in a poker game. As a result his flying is best described as inexpert.
So it is that Lee (and his daemon Hester) arrive in the town of Novy Odense and become involved in a stand-off between a put-upon sailor named van Berda and the power of corporate privilege. After meeting a shady figure from his past, Lee decides he must choose a side, which is how he comes across Iorek.
As you'd expect from something written by Pullman, the story reads with an effortless grace and is beautifully and finely observed and constructed. The extras, like Lyra's Oxford before it are in turn intriguing and useful, including documents and artefacts connected to the narrative itself, as well as a board game, 'Peril At The Pole'.
The last couple of pages are especially curious and relate to Lyra and her correspondence with a minor character from book one.
As with Lyra's Oxford, the slight disappointment is that there isn't more to read but it seems as if, for the moment, this is the way Pullman will realise this world: in fits and starts, and I suppose this is better by far than nothing at all.
An essential purchase for fans of His Dark Materials.
Fine piece of swashbuckling, gunslinging fun. April 17, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
Pullman writes an engaging, elegant little adventure tale with rich characters in a world that feels lived in. Splashes of detail--like Lee usually getting Iorek's name wrong--create a tantalizing theater of the mind, too short upon the stage. Fans will all the more eagerly await Pullman's next major work, the long-anticipated "Book of Dust." For those put off by some of Pullman's philosophical themes, "Once Upon a Time in the North" avoids metaphysics and focuses its plot on secular corruption, in government and industry. Parents of young children should be aware that there is a light smattering of profanity, completely appropriate to the characters and setting, but perhaps unexpected in a book suited to the juvenile market.
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