The Secret Commonwealth

Fantasy novel in the new series from the author of “His Dark Materials”

I am certain I wasn’t alone in my excitement when Philip Pullman announced that he would be writing a new trilogy following on from the series “His Dark Materials”, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first book in the new series. If you haven’t read the first book, then you might want to avoid this review in case of spoilers. Then, before I knew it, the next book was out and I picked it up from Harry Hartog Woden who, given current circumstances were doing takeaway books. The cover design is brilliant, it’s consistent in style with the first book but so striking in its own right.

“The Secret Commonwealth” by Philip Pullman is the second book in the trilogy “The Book of Dust” which is set after the events of the “His Dark Materials” series. Lyra is in her early 20s and studying at Oxford in St Sophia’s, a college of young women, but still calls Jordan College, where she was given academic sanctuary as a baby. Lyra has taken her studies seriously, and has become intrigued by new philosophical works advocating for a radical type of rationalism. However, things are not going well for Lyra. Since gaining the ability to separate, she and her dæmon Pantalaimon have become increasingly estranged. When Pan witnesses a murder one night while exploring the city alone, Lyra’s life is turned upside down and she must journey halfway across the world to find answers to the questions she is left with. Meanwhile, Dr Malcolm Polstead, a young academic with secret connections, must trace the murdered man’s steps to find the truth about mysterious roses.

I picked up this book and I was absolutely ensconced for days. Pullman is at his absolute finest in this novel, and combines all the elements required for an excellent novel in perfect measures. Familiar with Lyra as a confident, plucky young girl from the original series, this adult Lyra we meet in just as compelling. Her unusual upbringing and the impact of the events and her decisions in “The Amber Spyglass” have not left her unscathed, and instead we have a young woman who is struggling with self-esteem and finding her place in the world with no family. Pullman pushes his concept of dæmons, an outward expression of your soul shaped like an animal that you can speak with, to completely new places, and I am still thinking about the implications of what it means when you don’t get on with your own dæmon.

This book also shows an entirely new side to Malcolm, who we got to know as a good-natured, resourceful boy in “La Belle Sauvage” and a friendly if boring tutor in “Lyra’s Oxford“. If Lyra’s part of the story explores more deeply the philosophical discourse, Malcolm’s investigates the causes behind the sudden economic and political upheaval and the swift changes to the international religious organisation known as the Magisterium. Since we left him as a young boy, Malcolm has developed a number of skills and has grown into a fascinating and rather intimidating man.

I think that my only critique of this book is that despite being 687 pages long, I did not want it to be over. I rarely tolerate books that are long for the sake of being long, but the pacing and complexity of this novel was so perfectly executed that I was absolutely willing to be at Pullman’s mercy and follow this story to all the unexpected places it goes. I think that this book was better than the first in the trilogy, but it did admittedly develop a lot of the concepts introduced by Pullman in “La Belle Sauvage” who smoothly referenced the events in this book to remind the reader without being overly repetitive.

I cannot wait until the final in the series; Pullman has really hit his stride.