The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth (Book of Dust, Volume 2)

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By Philip Pullman

Publisher Description

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • DON’T MISS THE EPIC FINALE TO THE BOOK OF DUST: THE ROSE FIELD, AVAILABLE NOW!

Return to the world of His Dark Materials and discover what comes next for Lyra, “one of fantasy’s most indelible heroines” (The New York Times Magazine).

“A big novel full of big ideas, big characters, and big sorrows . . . This book feels like a response to the darkness in our time.”—NPR

Lyra Silvertongue thought that the adventures of her youth were long behind her, but when her daemon, Pantalaimon, witnesses a brutal murder, they are suddenly caught up in crimes that carry unsettling echoes from their past.

But Lyra at twenty is very different from Lyra at thirteen. The lies she used to spin with ease no longer come, she and Pan are at odds, and her ability to trust—most of all in herself—has been shattered. On the run, Lyra finds a surprising new ally in Malcolm Polstead. Lyra and Malcolm will travel far beyond the confines of Oxford, across Europe and into the Levant, searching for a city haunted by daemons, and a desert said to hold the mystery of Dust.

To find the truth, Lyra will have to reconnect with the girl she once was and face dangers that will challenge everything she knows about her world.

Look for the entire trilogy of THE BOOK OF DUST:
La Belle Sauvage • The Secret Commonwealth • The Rose Field

And Lyra’s adventures begin in HIS DARK MATERIALS:
The Golden Compass • The Subtle Knife • The Amber Spyglass

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The Book of Dust: The Secret Commonwealth (Book of Dust, Volume 2) Reviews

4.0

Allyse Taylor

Created 15 days ago

Claire

Created 30 days ago

Claudia Aguilera

Created about 1 month ago

Disjointed Beautifully-written

Veronica

Created about 1 month ago

“In general, love the Dark Materials worldbuilding/characters/writing style. This one gets a little redundant/repetitive in the second half and I just kind of wanted the plot to move along”

Believable Diverse representation Likeable Repetitive Atmospheric Immersive world-building

Anya

Created about 2 months ago

“This was my re-read before The Rose Fields comes out next month. I had forgotten just how much actually happens in this book - to Lyra, of course, but to everyone else, too. In a way, this feels like a companion to The Subtle Knife in that it so clearly depends on the books that come before and after to really make a lot of sense. There is a lot of mystery and odd, lingering threads that need connecting. What I loved: Lyra’s journey. It is so fun and cool that she heads east instead of north this time around. I am a sucker for PP finding old names for current cities and loved diving into Turkey’s past. I also loved Lyra’s time with Giorgio Brabandt. What I loved a bit less (though am hopeful will make sense): the bitterness between Lyra and Pan feels age-appropriate and also made me wildly unhappy reading. The connection between Lyra and Malcolm creeped me out significantly less this reading, but I’m still hoping it’s deeper or more complex than it seems. The sexual assault honestly felt very realistic, and also was just horrible. Did we need that for plot or character development? Really unsure. PP, bring it home! No pressure.”

About Philip Pullman

Philip Pullman is one of the most acclaimed writers working today. He is best known for the His Dark Materials trilogy (The Golden Compass, The Subtle Knife, and The Amber Spyglass), which has been named one of the top 100 novels of all time by Newsweek and one of the all-time greatest novels by Entertainment Weekly. He is also the author of another trilogy set in the same world, The Book of Dust (La Belle Sauvage, The Secret Commonwealth, and The Rose Field) as well as numerous other much-loved novels, a collection of fairy tales, and a volume of essays and speeches on writing. He has won many distinguished prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, the Whitbread (now Costa) Award, Parents’ Choice Gold Awards, and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award. Pullman was knighted for services to literature in the New Years Honours 2019. He lives in Oxford, England.