A short but sweet novella, Serpentine follows Lyra and Pan in the time between the original trilogy and the sequel trilogy. Reading this after The Secret Commonwealth is almost painful, because it bridges the gap between Lyra’s naïveté from the end of the original trilogy and the painful, cavernous void that characterizes her relationship with Pan in the Book of Dust series. In this novella, we see Lyra and Pan travel back to the North and meet with a certain returning character to ask a most pressing question. I won’t say much more, but obviously it is relevant to what I have described here, and definitely relates to what follows in the Book of Dust.

Though small, Pullman doesn’t pull his punches, and there are wonderful illustrations throughout that add a cozy feeling to the story. Despite its brevity, the reader still confronts serious questions—for example, is it truly possible to hide something from what is literally a part of you? What if you’ve been forcibly separated? How much space ought we to give someone we’ve hurt—and what ought they to expect of us in turn? Lyra and Pan’s relationship here is still hopeful and comforting, but having read the Book of Dust (at least the first two books), this novella has a bittersweet aftertaste.