HisDarkMaterials.org

Phit's Review

Lyra's Oxford is a simple little book with an equally simple plot. Lyra's Oxford is a stand-alone story with only 49 pages. Many embellishments have been added by renouned engraver John Lawrence, adding overall to the appearance of the book as if it had escaped from Lyra's world. The relief of Lyra's Oxford is that it is not trying to be His Dark Materials, the upset is also in that aspect. Lyra's Oxford, although a nice story, fails to live up to it's predecessors. Compared to some of Pullman's other works I have read it even seems weak, although Lyra's Oxford is by far the shortest of Pullman's work I have read. We begin the story with Lyra, on the roof of Jordan college - a familiar scene with familiar descriptions flowing with Pullman's writing abilities. Sadly only the begining seems to remain happy with describing details to it's readers as Pullman describes "It was like a single piece of cloth, cut in a very complicated way that let it swing through itself and double over and stretch and fold in three dimensions without ever tangling, turning itself inside out and elegantly waving and crossing through and falling and rising and falling again." The reader can almost feel what Pullman is describing, and much of the elegance of writing from His Dark Materials comes to mind initially. From this point on though, Pullman seems quite rushed. Although the full story takes place within perhaps less than three hours, it appears to make a promise of suspense and shock, but rushes the reader so quickly along from the intial meeting with Ragi, Yelena Pahzet's dæmon, to the end meeting with Sebastian Makepeace, that the reader is hardly shocked at the abrupt ending Pullman brings on with a surprise hero and a vaguely mysterious message at the end.

Previous characters are only mentioned briefly. If you are looking for a bit of that heartwrenching love between Will and Lyra to progress into Lyra's Oxford, I suggest rather re-reading The Amber Spyglass. Will is thought of momentarily in much the same way I had imagined a heart-break to be - a permanent and fragile scar. Dr Lanselius has his mention in context with Ragi promising Lyra on behalf of him, but Lyra and Pan remain suspicious of the witch's dæmon nonetheless. The Porter actually ends up having the largest part out of previous characters (save Lyra and Pan of course). The previously caught-red-handed poppy thief now has a name in the form of Mr. Shutter, and gives Lyra a map of Oxford and Jericho, which apparently is an area unfamiliar to our ragged street-controlling Lyra of old. New sinister characters also make appearances which we can most likely look forward to more of in The Book of Dust. Two new cat dæmons and their masters appear in Lyra's Oxford. Dr. Polstead, a younger scholar at Jordan seems most likely a villanous fellow, though we see him only briefly interrupting Lyra and questioning her intentions. Sebastian Makepeace seems most likely to have the largest future as he rushes Lyra away at the end without explaining much to her. All we learn of Mr. Makepeace is that he is only pretending to be an alchemist and has a history of witch-love heading much in the same direction as the fate of John Parry.

So as a reader, as the book ends you must then ask - was it worth it? I would say yes, simply because of the tantalizing note Pullman arranges at the beginning of the story, where he implies that some aspects of the story are related to things that have happened, some related to things that will come, and some totally unrelated. Lyra's Oxford really is a beautiful little package. It includes a fold out map along which you can trace Lyra's journey from Jordan to Juxon street where Makepeace lives, a postcard from Mary Malone sent to a fellow sister immediately after her journey back from "China", a brochure of sorts from the S.S. Zenobia, and on the back of the map, stories written by some characters we know. The intrigue is obvious in these extras. Who was it that went on the S.S. Zenobia cruise and had a date in Smyrna at Cafe Antalya at 11 in the morning? Why did our power-hungry Marisa Coulter subject herself to the boring authoring of a book entitled "Bronze Clocks of Benin"? Will we see more of Professor Trelawny - that phony! Or for that matter, that wonderfully insane prisoner-turned-author Professor Santelia? I found the most interesting "extra" to be a piece from a story on a man named Randolph Lucy - a man who appears to be well forgotten for his alchemy, but well remembered and mysteriously similar to one Sebastian Makepeace. Any way we interpret these add-ins and curiosities in the story we see ultimately what we were looking for, the understand Pullman wants us to strive for - that everything has a meaning and you'll find it if you search for it.