The Secret Commonwealth, and the issue with filler sequels

This is another travel book guys!! After finishing The Secret Commonwealth I had a really hard time deciding which one I like less. (I was considered writing 'more', but if I'm being honest with myself - and that's what I set out to do - I didn't like either all that much so 'less' seems to be the apt choice).

On one hand, there's a whole bunch of good things about this book that we didn't get in the previous instalment. We have young adult Lyra, something I was so stoked about it actually drove me to finally start the series, and adult Malcolm. Now that's an age gap romance potential I can get behind! Set after the events of the main trilogy, the novel also references a lot of things that happened in the past, and having recently watched the BBC adaptation of The Northern Lights, I was here for those connections.

We also get a generous serving of globetrotting, which always makes travel in a book that much more exciting. Following Lyra, Pan and Malcolm on their journey across Europe, we get to see them in some familiar cities which hide fantastical secrets. I was also disproportionately excited by the fact that Bulgaria, my home country, got mentioned a whole bunch of times - even if it didn't have any importance in the grand scheme of things.

There's also some intrigue, the brute force of the first novel is swapped for secrets and behind-the-scenes machinations, while past events start affecting the current narrative. I'm a sucker for all these things, so naturally I was drawn along through the hefty volume, hungrily devouring chapters because I wanted to uncover more of the mysteries and see how all these plot threads are connected.

And here comes the biggest disappointment of them all guys - nothing happens in this book. I mean, things happen, but really early on in the sequel it becomes obvious that this trilogy will revolve around two big events. SO with an audio book that's 20 hours long, I think I'm forgiven for thinking at least one of these big events will take place at the end of The Secret Commonwealth. Alas, it does not.

We follow multiple points of view, haul ass all the way across Europe, meet characters old and new, learn fascinating (and often terrifying) things about the world, and get to the precipice of the first event, only to have the book end there. My shock was made worse by listening to this story instead of reading it, as I hadn't quite so good an idea of how much I had left, so I kept thinking at least something big would happen before the end all the way until I heard 'To be concluded...' and realised Pullman has left us high and dry.

Now, having read many books in my day, I understand the logistics of sequels, and their ambitious task of taking the relatively contained narrative of the first instalment and expanding it into the wider universe, setting up the final conflict which would be resolved in the finale. But the lack of any satisfying resolution to The Secret Commonwealth makes me think Pullman has bit off more than he could chew with what he tried to cover.

The story is too long for how little of significance happened, and I feel very strongly about the fact that some of the obstacles could have been cut out. We had a number of scenes which were disturbing in both tone and contents, as well as a whole load of episodes which started to feel like too much suffering for the characters. Now don't get me wrong, I love a good hero's journey as much as the next person, but the second half of the story quickly starts to feel like the characters can't catch a break, and frankly, I though it was unnecessary to pile so much misery on.

The relationship between Pan and Lyra in this book makes me very uncomfortable, and upset with Lyra - an emotion I'm not used to feeling after reading three whole books about her being an adolescent, which says a lot, as you'd think it would be the other way around. And although I'm more willing to side with him, Pan is also not without a blame. He has the most aggressive way of offering criticism possible, so it's no surprise that their discussions hardly get anywhere.

So I guess the takeaway is this - I enjoyed learning all the things I did about the world and the characters in The Secret Commonwealth, but the book on the whole felt like a filler novel which would not be able to stand on its own as a narrative.

3.5/5 stars

(will I suffer through the final book in the series? you bet!)