Amazon.com: Customer reviews: His Dark Materials: Serpentine

Top positive review

From a collecting standpoint...

Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2020

I have not read the book yet, but have no doubt that I will love the little bit of narrative this expands upon in the overall story arc of the series. This review is based solely upon the book itself and not its content. I was expecting a matching companion edition to my first edition hardcovers Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North, but this book is slightly larger with a dust cover rather than the almost pocket sized textured covers of the previous installments. It will fit slightly offset with my other books on the shelf.

20 people found this helpful

Top critical review

All critical reviews›

Lois Fisher

Not worth the money

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2020

Would never have purchased this ridiculous "book," if I'd known it would be go-nowhere short story. I enjoyed Phillip Pullman's first two "Dark Materiels" novels, hated the third, but "Serpentine" was described as a Lyra and Pan adventure after the end of that. No adventure in this dreary story (and dull drawings). Just a lot of prattling by the main character and constant references to the earlier books. Nothing to propel a story on. Don't waste your money.

36 people found this helpful

Sort by

Filter by

Filtered by

CriticalClear filter

154 global ratings | 37 global reviews

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

Lois Fisher

Not worth the money

Reviewed in the United States on October 18, 2020

Verified Purchase

36 people found this helpful

Helpful

callie b

I love Pullman, but...

Reviewed in the United States on November 26, 2020

Verified Purchase

This was kind of a shameless money grab. It’s not even a novella, which would have been tolerable if the short story were creative, enlightening, surprising, original or introduced anything new to the Dark Materials saga. I bought if for my Pullman-loving nephew as a gift, but it was so disappointing I returned it instead. It was a tepid, unoriginal reheating of elements of other books. I’m guessing the author wrote this as a bridge between books, finding his way to the story he wanted to tell through this little story. Then, i guess, a greedy publisher got a big idea. This is Pullman at his least compelling. Pick another book.

27 people found this helpful

Helpful

TULIP@MB

Save your money

Reviewed in the United States on October 21, 2020

Verified Purchase

This isn't a book. It's a pamphlet. Eighty pages or so for a partial days conversation between Lyra and her daemon. Mr. Pullman has clearly written many wonderful books. This isn't one of them.

20 people found this helpful

Helpful

Bookseller

I'm a bit muddled

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2020

Verified Purchase

I have read His Dark Materials twice, La Belle Sauvage once and am struggling through The Secret Commonwealth (the antagonists seem to be out for Lyra with no clearly defined reason). This story took just a few minutes to read. It was ok. Nothing great and nothing that jumped out to make heads or tails about what was was going on in The Secret Commonwealth or about what might be going to happen in the third book. No great revelations and if not read will not leave the fans of Lyra Silvertongue wondering what they might have missed.

11 people found this helpful

Helpful

Not really what I expected

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

The art in the form of woodcuts is a nice touch.

The story is a quick five minute read about Lyra and Pan.

Book construction is nice and the paper is good quality.

I was hoping for something more along the lines as a young kid story for my bairn but I don't think this will be of much interest until he reads the main trilogy in a few years.

Can't really recommend for kids and probably best as something to read inside a bookstore sipping a coffee for free or for someone who is a collector.

7 people found this helpful

Helpful

Joseph Borreson

Sadly a little bit lacking!!

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2020

Verified Purchase

I have to agree with some other reviewers here that this book is a bit lackluster! It’s the first tale of Lyra (post His Dark Materials other than the prequel & ‘book of dust’ series) and I was really excited to and started reading it the same night I got it in the mail, yet was sadly quite disappointed with the story. Also because it is a setting that could’ve included a great adventure as part of the tale, yet it was just mostly one long interaction/conversation and didn’t really seem to add too much depth or interest even if it was enlightening. Note there’s pretty much no adventure happening to speak of. Just kind of bummed that the effort to put this into publishing a beautifully designed book and it was was pretty much lacking in depth to add to the story of Lyra and Pan.

2 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

Minimal

Reviewed in the United States on October 16, 2020

Verified Purchase

Interesting to Pullman fans, of course, but not not much content. Assumes you are familiar with most of the background of D. M.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

Kindle Customer

We love Lyra and his Dark Materials, but his short story doesn't hold up to the novels

Reviewed in the United States on September 30, 2021

Verified Purchase

This is a good purchase for any Dark Materials super-fan (like we are) who want to have the full collection and are eager to read every word about Lyra. The woodcuts are beautiful. But it's really just a short story that was created by Pullman for a charity auction that presages some of the events of Secret Commonwealth, but doesn't develop enough drama or character to be satisfying in its own right. That said, my child enjoyed it, simply because it was more Lyra and Pan. But don't expect it to be like the novels.

Helpful

Lulu Dibbs

Just a snippet

Reviewed in the United States on November 21, 2021

Verified Purchase

As all of Pullman’s works, this is beautifully written and the illustrations are lovely, but I hadn’t realized that this was not the next installment in his new trilogy, but rather a short essay, so I was very disappointed. I wouldn’t have purchased had I known and wish that I had done better research. I was so eager to read the next book.

Helpful

jurassicpigeon

Not a particularly interesting addition to the canon.

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2021

Verified Purchase

I'm a huge fan of Philip Pullman, and of course I want to know more about Lyra's world. But this book didn't do a great deal for me, no matter how pleasingly packaged. But worth reading if you want to know everything you can about His Dark Materials and beyond.

Helpful

Need customer service? Click here

‹ See all details for His Dark Materials: Serpentine

5 star		70%
4 star		15%
3 star		9%
2 star		2%
1 star		3%

His Dark Materials: Serpentine

›

Customer reviews

Customer reviews

His Dark Materials: Serpentine

Top positive review

Top critical review

Filtered by

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

His Dark Materials: Serpentine › Customer reviews

Customer reviews

His Dark Materials: Serpentine

Top positive review

Top critical review

Filtered by

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

From the United States

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

There was a problem loading comments right now. Please try again later.

His Dark Materials: Serpentine

›

Customer reviews