[Serpentine] is the slenderest of creatures, almost plotless and at 80 generously illustrated pages barely thick enough to have a spine ... Serpentine is a trifle, but it brings with it all the familiar delights of Pullman’s work: its effortless clarity, its intelligence, its ineffable mix of coziness and darkness, innocence and experience.
Pullman, a former teacher, is an astute mapper of the uncertain frontiers between adolescence and maturity – and Serpentine is a thoughtful exploration of those borderlands. It is gently paced, and readers expecting the rollicking thrills of His Dark Materials might stumble. But Pullman’s commitment to the full complexity of his creation – deepening its themes as Lyra ages – is admirable. Serpentine contains riches despite its brevity ... while it fits comfortably into the wider, wilder universe Pullman is building, the story never quite shakes a sense of irresolution. Perhaps though, as Pullman suggests in his author’s note, such untidiness is simply part of 'being alive and being human'.
Some stories are complete, and they don’t need sequels or new additions… but they keep haunting the author and the readers anyway, so adding to them just feels natural. Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials is one such story ... Serpentine is a sweet short story ... [it] is a very well-written piece, with good dialogue and beautiful imagery. If there is one negative, it is that it does not stand very well on its own ... it nevertheless reads as a sweet, brief homecoming to a beloved world.
It would only be slightly unfair to refer to Philip Pullman’s new work as a 'stocking filler'. He does, after all, have form in the short form ... There is little really of plot, but that is not the point. It is set-up, not revelation ... It’s a joy of a book, but a little joy. Given we know that Lyra will be off gallivanting across Europe soon, there is no sense of threat, and as such it will make a delightful Christmas gift.
Serpentine, a new book by Philip Pullman set in the universe of the His Dark Materials and The Book of Dust novels, is not properly a book at all. It’s a short story with its page count plumped up with numerous (charming) engravings by Tom Duxbury ... Serpentine is strictly for Pullman completists—newcomers to the Lyra novels will be entirely lost. Still, the printed book is a lovely object, with the aesthetic bonus of Duxbury’s cozy, Nordic illustration.
The quickly told story feels tucked in amid views of remote figures and empty streets, mingling with straight filler and pictures of sinuous daemons and people with distant expressions posed in various static configurations ... Pullman in any mood is worth catching, though this is about as slight as he gets.
