The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust, Book 2
By Carrie R. Wheadon,
Common Sense Media Reviewer
Common Sense Media Reviewers
Deeply philosophical fantasy for mature teens and adults.
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What's the Story?
In THE SECRET COMMONWEALTH, Lyra's daemon, Pan, goes out alone late one night and witnesses a murder. The dying man's daemon gives Pan his wallet with a key to a locker. When Lyra goes to the police station to turn it in, Pan recognizes one of the murderers as a police officer and they make a hasty retreat. So Lyra goes to the locker herself and retrieves a backpack from the locker. In it, there are botany notes about roses, a poem in Tajik, a journal about the man's travels to a secret factory, and the names and addresses of contacts all over Europe and the Silk Road. Slowly Lyra and the spies she shares the backpack with (including her very old friend Malcolm) piece together a connection between the murder and the desire of those from the clergy to acquire this information. At the same time, Lyra and Pan are constantly fighting, and late one night Pan leaves her. He says he's going out to look for her imagination. Lyra is despondent and flees Cambridge before the loss is noticed (only witches are fit to be seen without daemons). As she attempts to follow Pan, her travels across Europe also lead her closer to the mystery of the roses and the lost city where separated daemons go.
Is It Any Good?
Like Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials series, this fantasy's mystical travel adventures and deeply philosophical themes combine for a brilliant storytelling experience for both teen and adult. Pullman himself has said he writes for both audiences at once. With Lyra at age 20 as the most important character, there are moments of rebellion and questioning and deep dissatisfaction with early adulthood that teens will relate to. Her loneliness in the world is palpable. When the story shifts to 31-year-old Malcolm, his fellow spies, refugees on boats, and the power-hungry clergy, adult readers will notice echoes of our current struggles in the world and Pullman's astute take on it all. At one point a conniving politician with closer ties to Lyra than she realizes waxes on about how to hide information. "We should delicately and subtly undermine the idea that truth and facts are possible in the first place. Once the people have become doubtful about the truth of anything, all kinds of things will be open to us."
As this book is sandwiched in the middle of the trilogy, its job is to build in conflict that drives the finale, and it does this well on many fronts. By the end of The Secret Commonwealth, the spies are adrift, innocents are arrested, the clergy is gaining power all over Europe, Lyra's enemies are many and waiting to pounce, and we know the significance of the roses and how hard it will be to reach them before the enemy does. Very little is resolved here and, after the last 30 pages, there's more worry for Lyra than ever before. This is one finale that will be very hard to wait for.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the many themes in The Secret Commonwealth, especially since these books are written for both kids and adults. What do you think was is the most important message of the story?
Lyra and Malcolm have very different experiences traveling. Lyra is targeted as someone without her daemon and as a woman traveling alone. Malcolm rarely feels threatened. How is Lyra told to look and behave to keep from attracting the wrong kind of attention? Does Malcolm have to follow any special rules? What does Lyra carry to keep herself safe? Where in the real world is it safest and unsafest for women to travel alone?
Will you read the final Book of Dust? What do you think will happen to the church? Will the main characters find each other? Who of the many characters introduced here will come back and play an important role in the story?
Book Details
- Author: Philip Pullman
- Genre: Fantasy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy , Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More , Adventures , Cats, Dogs, and Mice , Fairy Tales , Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires , Trains
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers
- Publication date: October 3, 2019
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 14 - 18
- Number of pages: 656
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: December 3, 2019
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