The prequel companion volume to Philip Pullman's His dark materials trilogy. This is a glimpse for Pullman fans into the first friendship of two of the most beloved characters in the His dark materials trilogy--Lee Scoresby and armored bear Iorek Byrnison. Lee Scoresby, Texan aeronaut and future friend to Lyra Belacqua, recently won his hot-air balloon in a poker game. He finds himself floating North to the Arctic island of Novy Odense, where he becomes entangled in a deadly plot. It's only after Lee forms an alliance with one of the island's reviled armored bears that he can fight to break up a conspiracy.