The Secret Commonwealth

 Book Title: The Secret Commonwealth

Author: Philip Pullman

Series: The Book of Dust #2

Date Started: December 28th 2021

Date Completed: January 16th 2022

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

How well this series has aged. The Book of Dust, particularly in The Secret Commonwealth, is complex but so accessible. I'm always amazed by how Pullman can communicate such complicated systems, politics and emotions in a genuine and understandable way regardless of who's reading.

This book is a masterclass not in writing sequels but in revisiting an existing character's journey in a new way. Many of the themes from His Dark Materials are present, but the narrative is different; Lyra's goal has changed, her world has moved on, but most importantly we remember everything and everyone that has come before but they aren't shoehorned into this one for the sake of gratuitous references. And so everything is allowed to feel new. I often talk about books that serendipitously find you at exactly the right time. The Secret Commonwealth is absolutely one of those, as well as being another series that has grown up with me as I have grown and just happens to deal with my crises when I am faced with them.

Narrative-wise, of course there's the big world-changing plot here but, as always with Pullman's writing, there's an additional emotional story going on about how we seem to lose conviction as we grow older (that one hit home hard) despite the fact we seem to have more agency and knowledge at our fingertips. As we're able to reach for things further away, the further they seem to drift. There's also the wider socio-political refugee crisis that Pullman doesn't shy away from, and the growing indoctrination of bad religious practice, how politics become less about helping communities of people and more about propelling one or two to power. And, on the internal level, there's the exploration of how our troubles and concerns feel small and insignificant so we hide them away, and how so many others face their mirror, and the ripples caused by ignoring them as problems. All of this is underneath the story - and the story is thrilling enough without having to read into it. But I'm amazed at how Pullman can put so much depth and layers in, and with so much conviction.

The Secret Commonwealth has all the wonder and whimsy of the original series, colliding with the morality and mess of adulthood. I love how Pullman tied it back to La Belle Sauvage - though that book, while enjoyable, felt a little random at the time, it all makes sense now. Our understanding of the now-older characters and the politics established empowers us to be able to read the subtext intuitively. In many ways, Pullman has deliberately and consciously avoided the downfall of many sequels who fill their pages with bringing back old beloved characters for cameos but ultimately having to tell their story in the same parameters of perspective they did before. By establishing these new characters, allowing us to grow to love them and understand how their stories interact with Lyra's, our heroine is faced with a completely new challenge with new allies and new perspectives that she has to come to understand. That's how you write a sequel.