Scan barcode
A review by breakfastgrey
Serpentine by Philip Pullman
4.0
Rating all of the Pullman novellas (which are really more of short stories stretched out with illustrations and small pages that only hold a few lines of text) feels like running up the score on GoodReads, so I'm going to clump them all here in one Serpentine review because I'd still like to keep track as I'm working my way through the whole Lyra epic.
Lyra's Oxford- 3.5- Enjoyed this one, but it feels a bit brief and lightweight. I liked the twist at the end and the way that Lyra was played, but it was a bit inconsequential as a standalone book. The map was super cool, though.
The Collectors- 2.5- I wasn't particularly impressed by this one. It wasn't bad, but it didn't do much to engage me. It's unnecessarily complicated for a story this short that doesn't particularly go anywhere. I do like the idea of a darker, scarier story set in these worlds, though.
Serpentine- 4- Also ultra brief since the book boils down to a conversation and not much else, but I still really enjoyed that conversation. It added some new wrinkles to the overall mythology, which I enjoyed and showed some character progression. The art was also super cool.
Honestly, these three stories should be collected into one volume with Once Upon a Time in the North. Charging full book price for individual short stories is a bit much. The stories are all good, but I'd recommend using your local library to read them since they're all super quick reads. They're not necessary reads, but they are worthwhile if you're a fan looking for more and packaging them into one book of odds and ends would enhance the appeal.
Lyra's Oxford- 3.5- Enjoyed this one, but it feels a bit brief and lightweight. I liked the twist at the end and the way that Lyra was played, but it was a bit inconsequential as a standalone book. The map was super cool, though.
The Collectors- 2.5- I wasn't particularly impressed by this one. It wasn't bad, but it didn't do much to engage me. It's unnecessarily complicated for a story this short that doesn't particularly go anywhere. I do like the idea of a darker, scarier story set in these worlds, though.
Serpentine- 4- Also ultra brief since the book boils down to a conversation and not much else, but I still really enjoyed that conversation. It added some new wrinkles to the overall mythology, which I enjoyed and showed some character progression. The art was also super cool.
Honestly, these three stories should be collected into one volume with Once Upon a Time in the North. Charging full book price for individual short stories is a bit much. The stories are all good, but I'd recommend using your local library to read them since they're all super quick reads. They're not necessary reads, but they are worthwhile if you're a fan looking for more and packaging them into one book of odds and ends would enhance the appeal.