The Secret Commonwealth

 

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Well, I am glad to say that I am officially plague-free and well and truly re-immersed in the world of daemons and Dust that makes up Philip Pullman’s new trilogy: The Book of Dust. I have just closed the cover of the second instalment and I can’t wait to see what happens next!

Book two, The Secret Commonwealth, jumps ahead twenty years after the wet and dramatic events of La Belle Sauvage and ten years after the events of the His Dark Materials trilogy. Lyra Silvertongue and her daemon, Pantalaimon, are not getting along. Since having to separate in the land of the dead, their relationship has shifted and Lyra has changed. Now being impressed by sceptical literary theologians, Lyra seems to have lost the creativeness and impulsiveness of her youth and Pan wants it back. On top of this, a terrible war is raging in Central Asia, one that envelops them both when Pan witnesses a murder and Lyra learns the truth about some of the closest people in her life. 

While there is a lot going on in this book, with chapters following various protagonists including Lyra, Pan, Malcolm Polstead all grown up, and the villain Marcel Delamare, The Secret Commonwealth is just as gripping and exciting as its predecessor. The secret agent/spy narrative is still in full swing, made unique by Pullman’s continued depictions of the villainies of the Church, as well as other authoritative institutions, and the insertion of the magical/supernatural into the mix. The book continues to explore the conflicts between different methods of thinking and how they influence day-to-day lives, cleverly steering the reader this way and that with various protagonists going through changes and debates of perception. 

In this way the book most definitely leaves behind its younger readers and moves firmly into the realm of young adult fiction, as the simple binaries of good and evil are shattered with the fragments going everywhere and creating a confusing, but not un-navigable metropolis of narrative avenues and shades of grey. 

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It’s also very interesting to see our heroine take a bit of a battering –trigger warning: this is sometimes literal and some scenes of assault and sexual violence may be confronting for some readers. The curious, adventurous, and creative Lyra of the His Dark Materials trilogy has disappeared and immediately the readers are empathetic with Pan: no longer recognising this person. But Lyra’s first real adventure as an adult is one that promises to be full of change and growth and I am very keen to see how everything turns out. Just as much a story of identity as his other works are coming-of-age, The Secret Commonwealth succinctly depicts how even adults don't have everything figured out and are still prone and ripe for lessons and change. 

While I found the drastic jump in time a little hard to get into at first, I was quickly wrapped up completely in the events of The Secret Commonwealth and now eagerly await the third book.

Author: Philip Pullman, 2019

Published: David Fickling Books, Oxford, 2019

The Secret Commonwealth is the second instalment in Philip Pullman’s The Book of Dust trilogy.