Family Book Swap: The Secret Commonwealth

Title: The Secret Commonwealth
Author: Philip Pullman

via Amazon

As expected, my wife gave me The Secret Commonwealth, the second volume of Philip Pullman's The Book of Dust trilogy for our latest book swap.  Here is my reflection on Book One.  The story is set some 20 years after La Belle Sauvage and about 10 years after His Dark Materials.

Lyra is a university student at Oxford, though in a different college from Jordan, the one that essentially raised her.  Pantalaimon, her separable daemon (long story - read the books!), witnesses a murder while out wandering one evening.  This sets off a chain of events that leads to Pantalaimon running away and Lyra setting off to find him, sending both on an adventure across Europe to what we know as Turkey.

Malcolm, whom we met in Book One of this series, still sees himself as Lyra's protector.  What's more, he's in love with her.  So, when she runs off after Pan, Mal runs off after her.  Luckily for all involved, he's become even more of a badass with age.  Seriously, George Smiley would be proud!

There's a lot more to all of this but it's complicated.  However, it's well worth immersing oneself in this world.  I wasn't too sure about this second trilogy, having enjoyed the original so much, but the second book has me convinced.  While it is set in the same world with, for the most part, the same protagonist, the story is not a feeble attempt to rehash the old.  With more adult characters comes a more adult atmosphere and a more adult adventure.  As with Book One, not a read aloud for the tots.

Perhaps most importantly, Pullman tests the limits of the very world he created, specifically the limits of the daemon-human bond.  The original series portrays the relationship as invariably blissful.  In the new, Lyra learns quite a lot about how different the reality can be, and not merely between herself and Pan.  While His Dark Materials begins with the "I am not what I seem" premise of so many fantasy tales, The Book of Dust revolves more around "The world is not quite what I've always assumed it was."  If anything, it makes the concept more believable.

One other thing I really like:  Lyra, whom we've now known at three life stages, is acknowledged as a sexual being.  She has had sex.  She enjoyed it.  No big deal.  At no point is she shamed for this.  Nice.

In fact, the story is so different that I wonder how well it would stand on its own.  I love His Dark Materials and would certainly encourage anyone who hasn't read it to do so but I don't think it's necessarily a pre-requisite.