After the His Dark Materials trilogy comes the prequel-sequel trilogy The Book Of Dust.
First was La Belle Sauvage (The Book of Dust #1) and not this one.
I loved the first book. Malcom's story just pulled me in and never let go. This one was different. It takes place about 20 years after the first part, about 8-10 years after The Amber Spyglass, and we find Lyra a young adult.
This one was long and slow to start. It clocks in at about 630 pages. And I hate to say it but I had a hard time with Lyra at the start of this book. After talking to my friend Leenie I am able to put words into how it was for me. It was like angsty Harry in Order of the Phoenix. Lyra is having a hard time and is angsty and dealing with the fall out of what happened to her and Pan the last time we say them in the original story. Once Malcom is back in the story it picked back up some for me. It feels like La Belle Sauvage was a separate story and had no heavy lifting to do, no setting up for a next part because the next part was HDM and we know that story. It was only slightly Lyra's story, it was Malcom's mostly and partly Alice's. And it was action filled and fast paced. For The Secret Commonwealth it was slower moving, a sweeping epic story that travels the whole world. There is a change to and a more extreme Magistirium. Some mystery involving roses, rose oil, and a land of dæmons who are separated from their person. A burning man shows up, and something a plot to murder. There are a lot of threads here.
It is interesting, we learn more about Mrs. Coulter. Some old friends show up. It just felt slower moving and that was hard to reconcile with the other books. I am glad I read it. I really liked it it. I am really anxious to see how it all wraps up. I feel like the tension slowly ratchets and then BAM the last few pages and pow!!
Not my favorite part of this story but defiantly worth the read.
(Finished June 3, 2020)
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