The Secret Commonwealth - spoilers

Coming in very late here!

I found it odd that separation is so common, when in HDM it was an absolutely unthinkable, horrific thing to happen. But it was interesting the way it was described - like the breakdown of a marriage, rather than a splitting of an individual, which is what I'd have understood it to be.

I think it would be an Absolute Disaster to read La belle sauvage first (before the original HDM trilogy I mean). It would mean that you'd know from the start of Northern Lights about the real relationship between Lord Asriel and Lyra - and, I can't remember too clearly but would you also know the true relationship between her and Mrs Coulter?

I watched the first one and just couldn't enjoy it :Lyra was nothing like the fiesty and blonde urchin I had in my mind.
But then film adaptations always disappoint me - I was really let down by Perfume which is another of my favourite books. I think I should perhaps stick to reading!

@LadyOfTheCanyon I know exactly what you mean! Are you watching His Dark Materials? I'm obsessed with it!

@timswifey Thanks -I'll persevere. The original trilogy are some of my favourite books and I had such high hopes for the pre/sequels. I don't WANT Pullman to make everything too nice and its a testament to his writing that he can make me feel so sad about his characters, but oh my heart!

@LadyOfTheCanyon I was and am still really sad about the estrangement too. Can't promise anything but keep reading anyway.

I'm so saddened by Pan and Lyra's estrangement that I'm finding it difficult to read. I feel absolutely heart sore at the pain and loneliness they both feel. It's making me angry at Lyra and I'm not sure that's how I should be feeling. I want to continue but I'm feeling almost dread upon picking up the book.
Please tell me it gets better?

I have just finished listening to The Secret Commonwealth. I really enjoyed it, but that was due in no small part to Michael Sheen's absolutely brilliant narration. I thought it was a shame that Pan's journey was not featured as much. And it finished so suddenly! I thought I had at least a few more evenings listening left!

I did enjoy this, but i agree with others that it's less well-constructed and there are a lot of threads to keep track of. The whole rose-oil thing is introduced so early but then gets a bit lost as it becomes more about the question of what daemons represent and people who become separated, and what that all means. Also, why do all the people (aka men) that PP admires have cat daemons? Malcolm, Farder Coram, Will, ... I didn't really get the alchemist bit in the middle at all; was it just to introduce some foreshadowing to keep us guessing/engaged? (I haven't read Lyra's Oxford - should I?)
One thing I don't agree with is that it's filmic. It's too dark, emotional and episodic. I also don't fully understand the rift between Lyra and Pan - what has caused that really? Why has Lyra changed so much? That felt a bit like there was a missing chapter between The Amber Spyglass and this.
I'm now rereading LBS, and enjoying that very much with a new perspective though...

I have about 100 pages to go. I'm enjoying it, but like others have said, I find the separate journeys structure a bit contrived. I like Malcolm a lot and will be happy if he ends up with Lyra. I'm overwhelmed (in good and bad ways) by the complexity of the story. I like the parallels with our own political upheavals - refugee boats, etc. Overall I think around 8 out of 10 so far. Good, but not astonishingly so.

I struggled with the overall bleak world view, and Pan & Lyra's estrangement.

But there were some good characters in there, too. I I love Hannah, and Mal's mother and the secretary. And Alice, of course. And the woman on the boat who organised everyone.

I thought that Mal would be in love with Lyra, I felt that this was presaged very strongly in LBS. Also, we know already what he has been through for Lyra - he isnt Will, but he is a worthy partner.

Underwhelmed, me. Miles less imagination than HDM at work - no brilliant new characters or gadgets, and where the tale does lift off, we just get a rather graphic rape and some gross stuff about all-too unimaginary political problems in our world, now.

Also, cafes: about 50. Why? Was the book sponsored by Lavazza?

I suspect it was written as a film, very visual and lots of quick wins on the location front (see above).

Finished Secret Commonwealth and really enjoyed being back in Lyra's world - although it's horrible that she's separated from Pan and I agree with those who said the whole tone of the book is pretty dark and sad.

Cannot wait for the next book! It's unlike Philip Pullman to end on such a cliffhanger. Might need to read His Dark Materials again during the break...

I agree with you @SurpriseSparDay. Theoretically you could read the books in chronological order, but the human/daemon relationship isn't explained in LBS so someone new to the stories wouldn't necessarily be able to pick it up in that order.

I am now going to have to read the first three books again.

I enjoyed it but did not feel as engrossed - maybe as I was reading on my kindle. Very disappointed when I realised I was nearly at the end. Is it shorter than the original three?

I thoroughly enjoyed the secret commonwealth - such a cliffhanger though! I might have to reread the first 3 again ....

It’s interesting to realise that from now on people will be able to read the five (soon six?) books in the order of Lyra’s chronological age.

Although that would mean beginning with an issue regarding the person/daemon relationship that wasn’t a feature of the core three Northern Lights books at all. Hmm ... Also I have the feeling that PP went to the trouble of introducing daemons quite carefully in NL - whereas in La Belle Sauvage that relationship is taken for granted.

I've just finished La Belle Sauvage and really enjoyed it. I read the original trilogy some time ago, and found the books got stranger as I went on. So I am thinking perhaps I should re read them now, to get the chronology right, or should I go straight to The Secret Commonwealth?

Oh I was bitterly disappointed by this but mainly because I thought this was the second of a pair of books that wrapped around the trilogy.

I didn't like the shift to adult perspective, the language, Lyra's experience on the train or the reference to periods. I thought it was unnecessary.

I did like the characters we met and also the further detail on Alice and malcolm and I do wonder whether Olivier is Lyras brother.

Well I liked it. In a frustrating way in that I wanted Pan and Lyra to find each other, and I wanted Malcolm (I love him) to find Lyra, and I want to know what happens to Alice. It's frustrating that everything is unresolved and difficult and awful, but I think that's still good.

I absolutely don't want to see Will again. I love Will, but I think it would be a cop out to somehow reunite him. They were separated for ever at the end of HDM, and they need to stay that way. He talked about 'if we marry other people we have to not compare...' etc, and I think that's important.

I also loved Nur Hada and the way she was used. She's the Grenfell Tower girl who was added to raise money for Grenfell, and I love that he made her significant and important.

The thing that stuck out for me is the comparison between the scene where Lyra feels awful at having inadvertently taken that fire guy to his death by super-energy-joining-to-his-daemon experiment with a mad scientist, to the scene where she inadvertently took Roger to his death in a super-energy-splitting-from-his-daemon with a mad scientist.

I expected more too !

Wot - only nine people in MN-land have read it???

Mmm ... ‘Laboured’ is apt. But ‘immersive’ also.

I never like this separate journeys structure and here it seemed forced, even artificial. Maybe because I just didn’t believe the initial premise. If my daemon had left me I wouldn’t immediately assume he was travelling to a hideous place halfway across the world - and that I must follow him there.

And too much of it was essentially Bourne - inescapably visual and filmic, rather than, as in earlier books, challenging one’s imagination to conjure up a primarily psychological trauma.

The train assault was brutally horrific though.

Not sure, overall. Was hard going, but as always I feel somewhat bereft once I step out if that world. And I longed for Will ...

(Btw, maybe a stupid question because I can’t recall details from earlier books, but is Olivier going to turn out to be her brother?)

I liked the beginning and the end but felt it got a bit lost in the middle with all the philosophy - can’t wait for book 3 though after that cliffhanger!

Just finished it, what a cliffhanger!
I loved being back in that world, so immersive, so finely drawn.
I’m going to have to let it settle but my first reaction is that I loved it.

Finished too. On reflection I think that it was less satisfying because of the separate journey structure - Lyra, Pan and Malcolm meet other characters fleetingly along the way but there’s no time to build relationships that engage us. Whereas in the original trilogy one of the most compelling aspects for me was the relationships with people Lyra met on her journey - Iorek, Sarafina, Lee Scoresby etc - who were all fully fleshed characters.