ONTD Original: Am I going to get disappointed in my childhood favorite book (Golden Compass Edition)

The Background:

This Thursday (October 24th) will be the release of the final book in the most recent trilogy addition to His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman; The Rose Field. This series centers around Lyra and her daemon Pan and started with the first trilogy of The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass published between 1995 — 2000. 

Now Lyra is older and more disillusioned with her life (aren’t we all) in the most recent trilogy The Book(s) of Dust — The Belle Sauvage, The Secret Commonwealth and the newest The Rose Field. 

The Controversy:

The Belle Sauvage followed a character called Malcom who was around 11 when he helped baby Lyra reach safety at Jordan College. In the second book (Secret Commonwealth), Lyra is now 20 and Malcom 31, and yet the author has the horrifying decision to suddenly and fairly out of the blue make Malcom in love with Lyra, even though he has known her as an adult only a few days. This is largely reviled by the fans, as he also briefly taught her when she was a teen. Some fans have pointed out they hope the interaction turns ‘brotherly’ vs romantic, as romantic relationship between a teacher and student would really ruin the series, especially considering the author himself was once a teacher.  

I personally am holding off buying the next book unless I know Lyra and Malcolm are not end game, as these books have been part of my childhood since I was really young and I don’t want to ruin my memories of them. However, I do have some hope the author can find a way to make their relationship non-romantic, so I will be waiting for some spoilers. 

ONTD Question: Have you had beloved book series ruined by authors later decisions to add additions to them in questionable ways? …and now that I write this out I can see JK Rowling fits this exactly oop.