The Book of Dust - Philip Pullman

I've had this book sitting on my TBR shelf since the day it was published. It's one of those books that I wanted to read but I needed to delay reading it because I wanted to read it so much! Does that make sense? I guess to another reader it probably does. The anticipation is great but the dread of finishing it is as great. The perpetual paradox for the avid reader. Now I have read it and I feel as bereft as I thought I would now that it's done.

Strangely I didn't review La Belle Sauvage on this blog. I thought,  what on earth can I say that hasn't already been said by everybody else. I know there's nothing new that I can find to say about the book. Yet something in me wouldn't allow that to happen with this second volume of The Book of Dust sequence. And now I'm here I don't know what to say about it. Did I enjoy it? You bet. Did it live up to my expectations? Yes it did. Thank you and good night!

No, seriously. If La Belle Sauvage was a prequel then the Secret Commonwealth is almost a 'postquel'! For Lyra is no longer a baby, neither is she a child. She is a young woman, a student, thoughtful and slightly less impetous, who is maturing very nicely. This volume has close links with The Amber Spyglass and refers to one of the most horrifying, draining events that happened in that book. The relationship between Lyra and Pan, her daemon, is one of the crucial themes in this volume. Malcolm is all grown up and a professor at the University. He and Lyra's paths have crossed but at the beginning of the book she is unaware of his identity. As might be expected the plot is complex; there is a murder that precipitates much journeying and travelling, much trusting of strangers, much fleeing from foes, much solving of enigmas and many unanswered conundrums. We meet old friends like Ma Costa and Farder Coram. We find new ones. 

I was reminded of the whole Harry Potter thing in terms of J. K. Rowling writing those books as her characters aged along with her readership presumably. Here there is a sense that Pullman is expecting his readers to have grown along with Lyra. Well I have! 

As with the other books in the series you can enjoy this simply as a fantasy story. But of course with Pullman you know to expect something deeper behind the fiction. Organised religion continues to be a "character" in the series. Underlying philosophies punctuate the narrative but with a much more contemporary feel that links the fantasy world to our own world perhaps more than in any of the other books.

The Secret Commonwealth of the title is tantalising. And I'm worried that by defining it I might be offering up a spoiler. Suffice to say it concerns matters which may not always be prevalent in the physical world. But as a theme that remains consistent to the intention of all the other books it's a crucial part of the development of the whole sequence.

But I guess the backbone of the book is imagination. After all that's what created the whole series in the first place didn't it? It's what we need to read the book with, isn't it? It's what the writer utilises in profound abundance to create this world that has drawn us in so completely.

And now, I sit back and wait for the final book, the concluding part..................