Once Upon a Time in the North

This is about the fourth time i’ve bought this book. An amazing ‘prequel’ story of how Lee Scoresby met iorek. Great story- loved it and it wraps up nicely. Issue is that it isn’t the version I was expecting. I have given this book as a gift to several friends over the years and the books were beautiful. They were fabric covered and had a little fold out board game at the back! This version is hardback but with a paper dust cover on instead. Have a feeling the versions I gave away were maybe ‘special editions’ or something or just the original 1st print run. My advice would be to look for the fabric covered ones with the board game instead- much nicer.

I’m a huge fan of His Dark Materials and the new The Book of Dust series so I had high hopes for this story. I was not disappointed. This tells the story of Lee, the balloonist who helps Lyra in Northern Lights and how he became the best of friends with the armoured bear, Iorek. This story does assume prior knowledge of the books so you’d be lost reading it if you’d never read any of the books. I loved the illustrations scatted throughout as they add a depth to the story. I found Once Upon A Time in the North a real treat to read. I plan to read the second spin-off Lyra’s Oxford next and cannot wait for the second Book of Dust, The Secret Commonwealth later this year.

An adventurous story set in the north, detailing an incident in the earlier life of Lee Scorseby the Aeronaut telling how he befriended an armoured bear.

Loved this short story! A must for any Dark Materials fan or Philip Pullman fan. I only wished it was longer!

Absolutely brilliant!LOVED his dark materials, and this is a wonderful teaser, taster book...not only a great short story but the physical boom is beautiful! Lovely feel, wonderful illustrations and looks fab next to all my other books