La Belle Sauvage

[Dr Jekyll]

Set about 10 years before the Dark materials trilogy, this is a good read, quite tense in parts, but the plot doesn't really add up to anything and doesn't really have the depth of Dark Materials. It's very obviously the first in a series, but the next one is apparently set 20 years later.

The style is very reminiscent of Arthur Ransome. Resourceful kids having potentially dangerous adventures, readable by 10 year olds but also enjoyable for adults looking for an easy read, and it has lots of boats in it.

However some of the language and incidents might give parents pause for thought. These kids inhabit a world were there is not only some supernatural phenomena, but there is also such a thing as sex, and even 15 year olds resort to strong language in extremis.

[Equus]

Dr Jekyll said:

...the plot doesn't really add up to anything and doesn't really have the depth of Dark Materials. It's very obviously the first in a series, but the next one is apparently set 20 years later.

The next one (The Secret Commonwealth) doesn't really go anywhere, either, and doesn't seem to recognise the impact of the events of His Dark Materials at all... far from the upheavals you'd have expected from the death of 'God', the 'defeat' of death, and all-out global war with the Magisterium, everything seems to be back to how it was before.

Not a patch on the imagination of the Dark Materials trilogy, and very disappointing, I felt.