Customer Reviews

Shadow in the North (Point)

5 star:		(58)
4 star:		(21)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Pullman has a rare and valuable talent: his chosen field is the young adult novel, and he writes for young adults. Frankly, without condescension, and with a lively intelligence and subtle humor that shows he respects his audience as much as they (indubitably do) respect him. This novel shows a young woman in full command of her faculties being put into the teeth of an excruciating moral predicament, and if the road she eventually finds out of it is a simple one, that is because Pullman is not above granting a final bit of wish-fulfillment after he's run us through the wringer.

I'll leave the plot summaries to other reviewers; it's enough to say that it's a lively and political mystery / thriller and its coincidences, while implausible, do not betray their own internal logic. Pullman is first and foremost an observer of character, and what makes this book something that makes me, a 29-year-old guy who tends to read much more austere stuff, take notice, is the sheer aliveness of the characters. There's Sally, of course, a resolutely feminist young woman whose resolve and determination are surely of her time, even if some of her anxieties and dilemmas seem more resonant with the present than Victorian England; Frederick, her friend and peer who she loves, and with whom she argues helplessly and often; Jim, their young, streetwise friend, who is capable, brave, and eminently self-aware; and a large cast of supporting characters, many of them women, who are sharply limned and full of their own stories. The fact that Sally is living out what would have been, at best,a Victorian woman's fantasy is dealt with elsewhere; the fact that huge swathes of the dialogue is anachronistic is irrelevant.

What sets this apart from other young adult novels, even as it evokes them, is the very real sense of moral hazard and the awful consequences of the modern age that it portrays. The world into which Sally, Frederick, and everyone else is being swept is one where the old hunger for power is being given new, terrible means of finding its voice. The clarity with which Pullman evokes this sense of foreboding is remarkable, as is his restraint. At its heart this novel is a warning of terrible things that have already come to pass. It is insistent without being didactic, it shows rather than tells. In the end it convinces.

While the Lockhart trilogy is not as stunning as the His Dark Materials books, it's not trying to be. It's about one woman, her friends, and the world whose birth they must survive. If they are occasionally more than human, that might just be because something more than human is necessary to survive in this new world.

The Shadow in the North, the third book in the Sally Lockhart Trilogy, is the best in the series. The book is wonderfully written with and excellent, but complicated, plot.Six years later Sally Lockhart is a 21 year old financial consultant and Fredrick Garland and 20-something photographer and private detective become involved in a mystery or murder and fraud. Sally refuses to accept that her relationship with Fred is becoming something more then friendship.... You'll be smiling through your tears!!! Its a must read that you can't put down. You'll probably end up reading it a dozen times.The ending is sad , a happier ending may have been better, but its one more obsticle Sally must overcome in her life. The Shadow in the North is absouloutly the best in the series, not saying the others were bad they too were excellent. I recomend reading the books in order , their more enjoyable that way!! But no matter how you read them make sure you read The Shadow in the North!!

"The Shadow in the North" takes a darker tone than the previous Sally Lockhart book, "The Ruby in the Smoke." Sallies enemies take on a more realistic tone than the operatic Ah Lee, and there is some serious doubt about who, if anyone will prevail in this strange adventure.

Like all books in this series, Philip Pullman pulls together historical accuracy, winding plot lines, likeable characters and outright adventure. Sally Lockhart is not a perfect hero. She has faults like any person and often is blinded by her ambition to prove herself. She goes through many changes in this book and matures into a young woman. No longer a teenager, Sally is in her twenties in "The Shadow in the North." Fred Garland and Jim are there to help her as usual.

I don't want to give away too much about the book. It is a mystery after all! But I will say that, like many Philip Pullman books, "The Shadow in the North" is bitter-sweet and captivating. Sometimes reality intrudes too much into the fantasy, leaving a strange sensation for the reader. A very good novel.

This is by far the best book in the Sally Lockhart trilogy. The first and third are very good but don't have the emotional intensity of this. The plot is well written and horrifying while being a lot easier to follow than The Tiger in the Well. The ending is heart-wrenching but without it the third wouldn't work and it is a tribute to Pullman's writing skills that this is only the second book that has ever made me cry. Although the plot is full of tension and makes you want to read on and on I feel that the main focus of this book is Sally's relationship with Fred and her battle to interpret her feelings for him. The character's are what makes a book and this is no exception. The goodies are vivd, funny and lovable and the baddies, although ultimately evil manage to throw in a few shocking twists.

I think it is essential to read the books in order. Reading the third before this would remove the horror of the ending and most of the plot since it is summarised in the Tiger in the Well. All in all one of the best books I've read. Thrilling and heart breaking.

THE SHADOW IN THE NORTH is the second book in the Sally Lockhart series, and in my opinion, the worst (not that the others were bad - it's just that this one wasn't as good). The overall layout wasn't as well worked, thought the plot is exceedingly complicated: Six years after THE RUBY IN THE SMOKE, Sally has established herself as a financial consultant. Her friendship with Frederick Garland has blossomed into something more, though Sally refuses to acknowledge it, arousing conflict between them. However, a new case soon brings them together again ... one of Sally's clients loses a great amount of money, which she had invested in a shipping firm that collapsed. As Sally investigates this, she finds it to be all part of a bigger scheme; Fred meets a magician who is in danger because he has seen a murder. Soon, they find that these two apparently irrelevant cases are interlinked in an intense enigma.

This book is a must-read for Sally Lockhart fans, even though it lacks the fascination found in the other two, it's a good transition from the first book to the third. Enjoy!

Back when I was in middle school, I was quite a bookworm. One summer I spent every night with a book, in the huge armchair at my house. This was one of them. I cried at the end, I *cried.* That's the very first thing that I have to say about this book, and I'm not ashamed at all. All of Pullman's books have such real characters, so that in time you feel so very attached to them by every cell in your body that at times reading can be difficult. All of the books in this series are so full of emotion in some parts that its unbearable. I really became very attached to the characters, not just emotionally. They're just all so lovable, or hatable. Quite a splendid cast, if I do say so myself. But, the romantic aspect of this novel can be a bit difficult to take.

However, that's not all I have to say about this. I must mention that I read this overnight, which was a big deal to me back then, since books this size seemed *huge.* The plot is excellent, and it held me captive for quite some time. Every part of it made me want more, to read more. This is one of those books that you can't put down the first time through, and then want to reread many times because it is just oozing with coolness and goodness and plain ol' niftiness.

So, read this book. Read the other books in this trilogy too. Read His Dark Materials. Read anything by this author, it's all wonderful. I may seem to be speaking behind a veil of nostalgia, but I am not. (However, I would be if I was proclaiming the greatness of something like Power Rangers - eeeew.) Go on, read this book. But, be warned, you will have tears in your eyes by the end. I still do, whenever I find myself rereading it. Any book by this author is well worth your time and money - trust me.

I greatly appreciate Pullman's tendency to treat young readers as capable of dealing with sophisticated ideas like religious controversy, drug addiction, violence, and sex. Indeed, youth deal with these things in their everyday lives, and they need literature that addresses them without the aggrandizement or gloss with which they are so often depicted on TV. This novel, with its vivid characters and life-like depictions of 19th century London, treats its young readers with respect.

"The Shadow in the North" is the second book in the Sally Lockhart trilogy (or quartet, if you count "The Tin Princess", but that's a whole other debate), and begins about five years after the events of "The Ruby in the Smoke". Sally Lockhart, our Victorian heroine who was raised to think more like a contemporary woman, is now self-employed as a business consultant. Her companions Frederick Garland and Jim Taylor are amateur detectives and professional photographers, and despite a growing attraction/animosity between Sally and Fred, all seems well. But then one of her clients, Miss Walsh, comes to her office to inform her that she has lost all of her money after taking Sally's advice and investing in a ship that has since disappeared. The subsequent event of the firm's downfall seems to be linked to a man named Axel Bellman, the richest man in Europe, who is surrounded by scandal and gossip. Sally promises to get her lost money back, and begins her investigation...

Meanwhile, Jim Taylor's work at the theatre throws him into the path of the famous magician Alastair MacKinnon, who begs him for help in escaping two armed men. Jim takes him home, and he and Fred (who is experimenting with capturing seances with cameras) hear his extraordinary story. As well as an amazing talent on the stage, MacKinnon claims to have psychometry abilities - when he touches certain objects, he gains visions connected to them. And recently, he's had a vision of a man killing another with a sword in a snowy forest, and believes that the murderer knows that he knows, and has sent men to kill him.

Filled with magicians, physics, beauties, blackmail, murder and intrigue, "The Shadow in the North" follows on nicely from its previous book, if not quite up to its ingenuity. "The Ruby in the Smoke" just seemed a bit more personal considering Sally's secretive past and her father's murder was involved, and here I couldn't get quite as involved in the story as previously. Despite a terrifying, fascinating villain and a nefarious plot, there were a couple of glitches, such as the unnecessary presence of a giant dog that Sally owns, and at one stage MacKinnon claiming to be related to two other characters - the problem is he isn't, making the passage rather confusing. What annoyed me most however, was the complete lack of Rosa and Trembler, two major characters in the first book who are completely absent here, and only barely mentioned. And these mentions are so brief that a swift reader might miss them completely, and they certainly don't give us satisfactory information on their present lives. Thankfully, they reappear in the next book "The Tiger in the Well," and one has to admit that Philip Pullman is always more concerned with creating a story true to life rather than a formulaic system that is regurgitated every book.

There are some passages that may raise some adult eyebrows, but I think some may blow these out of proportion. Yes, there is violence, death and premarital sex, but Pullman never goes out of his way to explictly describe any of these things. And this *is* classified as a "young adult" book - no one under the age of eleven is going to be reading this book, and anyone over that age is certainly capable of handling what Pullman presents.

Although it's not my favourite book in the series, it's still a great read, and a necessary one if you're going to continue reading the Sally Lockhart books. And as usual, people should be warned that these books are very different from Pullman's more famous "His Dark Materials" trilogy - don't come to these books expecting fantasy.

This book was my first introduction to Philip Pullman and since then I have discovered that he is an extraordinary author. This book tells the tale of Sally Lockhart. Sally's father has just died and through some means, Sally is entrusted with a priceless ruby. With this ruby, Sally will discover what real greed and coruption is and, through the process, will have her life at stake many times throughout the story. This story was an excellent and masterful tale full of suspense and mystery.

Shadow in the North, disputably the best of the three Sally Lockhart books, is the story of a young woman struggling to keep herself afloat in the world. She pits herself against a huge crime syndicate, leading to some terrible consequences. I, a reader of mostly adult books, found Shadow in the North a riveting mystery, despite its Young Adult rating. Passion, trust, fear, loyalty, and true love all come together in a exellent novel by Phillip Pullman, putting on the same level as some of of the most prestigious novels of the decade.