First off, let me just be out with it, I don't actually like "His Dark Materials". Or, at least, not ALL of it. I like the new-line cinema movie and the first book "Golden compass/northern lights"; but I hated the other two books, most especally "The Amber Spyglas"; so I don't usually read much "HDM" fanfiction because A) I don't want the fans of the whole series to bite my head off for not liking it in its entirety, and B) most of the fics I run across seem to be based on the last two books and are generally Lyra/Will (which happens to be my LEAST favorite pairing in the series).

However, when I saw this story, and it appeared to be based more on "Northern Lights"-sorta like a prequel, I thought it would be fun to give it a try. And IT WAS! I really enjoyed this one-shot very, very much. Lyra and Pan were so in-character through-out that it was really a pleasure to read. Also, I loved the last line, "Hate to tell you, but I told you so." to pieces; it's just so totally like Pan to say something like that.

And, actually, to tell you the truth, this story is almost exactly how I imagined Lyra stealing the Costa's boat was (with the exception of the fact that she was alone-other than Pan-and I'd always thought other collage children would have been with her, egging her on and all).

So in short, I loved this and I'm adding it to my favorites. GREAT WORK! Keep up the good writing.

INCOMING TRANSMISSION FROM COMMANDER CODY CC-24...

For a one-shot, this is a most excellent work! It’s nice to have a bit of insight into the history of our most favorite HDM characters, especially in the timeline prior to the start of the HDM trilogy itself.

The details of the story are executed pretty smoothly, and the tone and mood of the characters are described in a manner that allows the reader to get an overall picture as to what Lyra and Pantalaimon are feeling. (I have to admit, this is something I have a bit of trouble doing, so I can appreciate this.) Plus, you also got the history right, too, so I’m guessing you did quite a bit of research before writing this HDM fanfic.

In the last part nearest the very last paragraph, you might consider mentioning in some fair detail how Lyra feels now that she’s been scolded by Ma Costa and that her mischief-making will be reported to “Uncle” Lord Asriel.

Overall, I give this a thumbs up! No…wait…two, actually!

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awesome (: you should write more HDM fics your really good

smooth move, lyra

GREAT GREAT GREAT!

Ahaha! I have been waiting for you to write an HDM story. I must say this was good.

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