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nytephoenyx's review against another edition
dark
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.25
I think when he was writing The Secret Commonwealth, Philip Pullman just really wanted all the fans of His Dark Materials to shut up and stop asking what happened to Lyra next. After teasing longtime fans and readers with La Belle Sauvage, finally a book about Lyra Silvertongue is announced and the story we get is self-important and depressing. If you’re a fan of The Golden Compass and you haven’t read the gigantic tomes in the decades-later follow-up series yet… well, you’re welcome. I’ve done it for you so you don’t have to suffer.
First of all, the plot was… boring, I guess? There were a few different storylines running simultaneously through different POVs and I personally did not find any of them interesting. In fact, I’m a bit perplexed as to what kind of story Pullman wanted to tell, and further confused as to why it’s all Lyra’s story again. It’s almost as though both La Belle Sauvage and The Secret Commonwealth were worldbuilding notes that Pullman had about Oxford and its world… but he wanted to loop in Lyra because he wanted to draw the readers of His Dark Materials into his new series. Realistically, I believe both the novels in The Book of Dust would be better served in the same world of His Dark Materials but following different characters.
Pantelimon is absolutely correct in saying Lyra has lost her imagination. As a character, she seems to have lost more than that. I understand that the character has grown up, but she feels like an entirely different character than the one we left in The Amber Spyglass. She has lost her curiosity and interest in the world. She’s lost her drive and optimism. Her entire journey in His Dark Materials did not take this from her, but going to school has. This, in particular, made me feel like the story should have belonged to a different character.
There were a couple aspects that made me a bit uncomfortable, writing-wise. There are scenes regarding homosexuality that I don’t feel Pullman was classified to write, and frankly, made me cringe a bit with the way he spoke about it. It’s one of those things that, in reading, it feels more like he was expressing his own (problematic) understanding of the LGBTQIAP+ community. From a social perspective, I hated that he said one could learn to love a woman after a while. From a worldbuilding perspective, it seemed like he went against how he explained daemons in his world earlier. There were also scenes where Lyra was wearing a niqāb, and Pullman was not subtle in how he wrote Lyra behavior felt like a judgment on the logic of niqābs and hijabs and I just… didn’t… like it. Finally, there is an attempte rape scenes that, again, I don’t feel Pullman was qualified to write. I dunno. Maybe I’m being overly critical. Maybe I’m reading into something that isn’t there. Either way, I didn’t like it. If he consulted outside sources or had sensitivity readers or any of that, it certainly isn’t references in the Author’s Note.
The story doesn’t become interesting until the last half hour of the twenty hour audiobook. Most the story is a journey, but Pullman seems to have lost his skill at making that journey interesting without making it vulgar. I just… don’t think I’m compelled enough to read the final book because both of the previous two have been far too long and went little to nowhere. I’m just not invested enough in the story to waste more hours of my life seeing the ending.
I love, I love His Dark Materials. But I can’t in good conscious recommend either La Belle Sauvage or The Secret Commonwealth. I was hoping the series was going to get better, but it hasn’t. If you have fond memories of His Dark Materials, I’m inclined to recommend avoiding this one as not to tarnish what you know of Lyra. Enjoy her adventure, you don’t need to know what happens next. Your time is more valuable than that.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence
Minor: Homophobia, Islamophobia, and Lesbophobia
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