I agree that there is a lot left on the table in this book, but isn't that to be expected with a middle book of a trilogy? I adore His Dark Materials so maybe I am somewhat bias but I have hope the final book will bring all the random points together. Also the idea that he left her because of her "lack of imagination" is the idea that she has grown up and has critical thinking whereas Pan hasn't, but neither of them are right or wrong. It is saying that people need to anchor themselves as they grow up without the wonder of childhood and Lyra has given in to the bleakness (somewhat) of adulthood and rational thinking despite the facts infront of her and what she has been through. As they both go along their roads in this book they both see each other's perspective. It is basically saying 20 something year olds think they know everything and so do children (in this case Pan and how he used to see Lyra) but in the end they are both half right and still know nothing. In the same way His Dark Materials was a clever way of showing how children move into puberty and find their first love, this book is telling a tale of albeit much more subtly of the fight between the human mind between the wonder of childhood (Pan) and critical thinking (Lyra) whether either is right or wrong. Maybe I am wrong in my perspective of this but it is how I read it. I will admit a lot of the characters in the book were surplus to requirement such as the flaming man. But I will hold my judgement on how good this book actually is until I read the final book. Hope I made sense, dunno if I did.
I wrote out a long reply but it seems to have dissapeard! Thanks for your comment! I really appreciate you explaining this. It seems I've missed a lot of the subtleties (which I do a lot) of this book. Overall I think I was just disappointed by the fact that a lot from the original trilogy was forgotten/erased and It's only been 8 years since this huge cross worlds war. The world seemed too convenient and concidentail and so much from the original trilogy had a trivial explanation or wasn't a big deal. I'm really hoping the 3rd book ties this together better as I really enjoyed La Belle Savage as a prequel to the original trilogy as it really laid the groundwork well. This book just doesn't seem to fit at all and didn't seem to go anywhere in my opinion. Thanks for taking the time to write this! 😊
I think it’s very telling that it’s been almost five years since The Secret Commonwealth came out and there’s been nothing confirmed about the release of the third book.
This is the first in the HDM series that I forced myself to continue reading. Lyra was turned into Susan from the Narnia series to parallel a lack of imagination, but that doesn't work in a world where witches and talking animals are already established. Also saw Malcolm as an older brother and teacher figure from La Belle Sauvage, so him turning into a love interest with Lyra was a bit unsettling. Really hope that the third book evens things out. There were many great concepts present but I found the execution to be missing the mark from the previous series. (Bonus: having faith bad, believing in fairies good).
I love that comparison to Susan, it fits so perfectly! I agree and I think it would have been so lovely to have a sibling relationship depicted instead of what we got. I'm putting all my hope in the 3rd book too. I loved you comment 😊
One of the things that I disliked the most is how Lyra see her younger self. In the ending of The Amber Spyglass, I saw Lyra as an adult. She was a teenager, but she was certain of what she was and who she wanted to be. However every time she reflects of her past self it is like see she herself as childish and innocent. It kind ruined the image that I created of her for the past decade, since I read the original trilogy.
Well I just finished this book. It took me 4 months to read and it confused me so much too! I felt as if Pullman lost his own imagination and Pan went off to find it 😅 but I really really hope the third book makes up for it. I was also hoping to see Will in this book, hopefully in the next one? 🤞🏼
Great review. I didn’t even make the same connection with how nonchalant the demon separation was in this book compared to the original trilogy. Are there any other fantasy books out there that you recommended?
It was just very jarring to me and took away from the original trilogy so much! I'd really recommend The Four Treasures series by Caroline Logan, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden, The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon. They are all very different fantasy's but look them up and one of them might strike your fancy 🥰
There are some very interesting things about the book. Even some brave and different concepts that emerged but I ultimately agree that it was unsatisfying. The depth and complexity and fullness of the original trilogy would be very hard to compete with of course.
Really disappointed with The Secret Commonwealth too, so for me while I really enjoyed the His Dark Materials tv series I won’t be losing any sleep if there isn’t an adaptation of The Book of Dust trilogy.
@@EleanorNicBhatair Agree. Also I personally feel if Phillip Pullman didn’t want to have Lyra and Will end up together, I would have rather the series ended with The Amber Spyglass. Now having red The Book Dust series so far and seeing how great the chemistry was with Dafne Keen and Amer Wilson in the TV series, the only end I would probably accept is Lyra and Will ending up back together.
Okay I've finally watched this! The main thing I'm surprised you didn't mention was the age gap between Lyra and Malcolm. The age itself is okay, but combined with him being her teacher at one point gave me weird feelings. The lack of just simple communication between Pan and Lyra was so damn frustrating. I found the weirdness and the rejection of what we know from the original trilogy to be a part of the book. To me it was part of what signified Lyra's current pov on the world and how it's being manipulated by these authors. You make so many points in this vid that I'm sure I've missed most of them but I'm totally up for a chat about this! And I ended up giving this 4*s and I really enjoyed it
Tbh I kinda forgot about the teacher part 🙃 it became more of an issue when I read Lyras Oxford afterwards! The communication issue was my biggest gripe, it was so childish to me and felt out of place for her being 20. It may be that I don't mesh much with YA anymore. Yeah you could be right that's why I'm still interested in reading the last book to see the outcome etc. I did give it 3* myself so I did like it I was just really disappointed. Probably my fault for expecting too much 😊
@@EleanorNicBhatair Oooh I need to read the novella's, and the communication I understood but also it pissed me off. I was so surprised when I saw the swearing in the book too. Is it even YA or is it adult? Maybe it's a bit of middle book syndrome for you, I hope so and I hope that you love the last book!
@@AbiofPellinor The target age is hard to work out but I think it is still classed as YA. I'm hoping the conclusion works for me, I was gutted I didn't love this book more! As I really liked La Belle Savage 😊
I saw this novel in book shops but didn't really know anything about it, so it did get my attention and still doesn't. But still an awesome review and video.
I just finished reading the original trilogy for the second time, I read it in two different languages to see how different they were and it was an interesting experiment, my plan is to read this book in the same way but now i am reconsidering.
That's so fun that you can do that!! Definitely watch some more reviews first, a lot of people did enjoy this book a lot more than me and you might be one of them 😊
I agree that there is a lot left on the table in this book, but isn't that to be expected with a middle book of a trilogy? I adore His Dark Materials so maybe I am somewhat bias but I have hope the final book will bring all the random points together. Also the idea that he left her because of her "lack of imagination" is the idea that she has grown up and has critical thinking whereas Pan hasn't, but neither of them are right or wrong. It is saying that people need to anchor themselves as they grow up without the wonder of childhood and Lyra has given in to the bleakness (somewhat) of adulthood and rational thinking despite the facts infront of her and what she has been through. As they both go along their roads in this book they both see each other's perspective. It is basically saying 20 something year olds think they know everything and so do children (in this case Pan and how he used to see Lyra) but in the end they are both half right and still know nothing.
In the same way His Dark Materials was a clever way of showing how children move into puberty and find their first love, this book is telling a tale of albeit much more subtly of the fight between the human mind between the wonder of childhood (Pan) and critical thinking (Lyra) whether either is right or wrong. Maybe I am wrong in my perspective of this but it is how I read it.
I will admit a lot of the characters in the book were surplus to requirement such as the flaming man. But I will hold my judgement on how good this book actually is until I read the final book. Hope I made sense, dunno if I did.
I wrote out a long reply but it seems to have dissapeard!
Thanks for your comment! I really appreciate you explaining this. It seems I've missed a lot of the subtleties (which I do a lot) of this book. Overall I think I was just disappointed by the fact that a lot from the original trilogy was forgotten/erased and It's only been 8 years since this huge cross worlds war. The world seemed too convenient and concidentail and so much from the original trilogy had a trivial explanation or wasn't a big deal. I'm really hoping the 3rd book ties this together better as I really enjoyed La Belle Savage as a prequel to the original trilogy as it really laid the groundwork well. This book just doesn't seem to fit at all and didn't seem to go anywhere in my opinion.
Thanks for taking the time to write this! 😊
I think it’s very telling that it’s been almost five years since The Secret Commonwealth came out and there’s been nothing confirmed about the release of the third book.
This is the first in the HDM series that I forced myself to continue reading. Lyra was turned into Susan from the Narnia series to parallel a lack of imagination, but that doesn't work in a world where witches and talking animals are already established. Also saw Malcolm as an older brother and teacher figure from La Belle Sauvage, so him turning into a love interest with Lyra was a bit unsettling.
Really hope that the third book evens things out. There were many great concepts present but I found the execution to be missing the mark from the previous series. (Bonus: having faith bad, believing in fairies good).
I love that comparison to Susan, it fits so perfectly! I agree and I think it would have been so lovely to have a sibling relationship depicted instead of what we got.
I'm putting all my hope in the 3rd book too. I loved you comment 😊
One of the things that I disliked the most is how Lyra see her younger self. In the ending of The Amber Spyglass, I saw Lyra as an adult. She was a teenager, but she was certain of what she was and who she wanted to be. However every time she reflects of her past self it is like see she herself as childish and innocent. It kind ruined the image that I created of her for the past decade, since I read the original trilogy.
That's a really excellent point, I feel this book erased so much of Lyra's past and experiences!
Well I just finished this book. It took me 4 months to read and it confused me so much too! I felt as if Pullman lost his own imagination and Pan went off to find it 😅 but I really really hope the third book makes up for it. I was also hoping to see Will in this book, hopefully in the next one? 🤞🏼
Great review. I didn’t even make the same connection with how nonchalant the demon separation was in this book compared to the original trilogy. Are there any other fantasy books out there that you recommended?
It was just very jarring to me and took away from the original trilogy so much!
I'd really recommend The Four Treasures series by Caroline Logan, Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman, Winternight Trilogy by Katherine Arden, The Books of Pellinor by Alison Croggon. They are all very different fantasy's but look them up and one of them might strike your fancy 🥰
There are some very interesting things about the book. Even some brave and different concepts that emerged but I ultimately agree that it was unsatisfying. The depth and complexity and fullness of the original trilogy would be very hard to compete with of course.
Really disappointed with The Secret Commonwealth too, so for me while I really enjoyed the His Dark Materials tv series I won’t be losing any sleep if there isn’t an adaptation of The Book of Dust trilogy.
Same here, the TV adaptation was done so well, I just want them to leave it at that!
@@EleanorNicBhatair Agree. Also I personally feel if Phillip Pullman didn’t want to have Lyra and Will end up together, I would have rather the series ended with The Amber Spyglass. Now having red The Book Dust series so far and seeing how great the chemistry was with Dafne Keen and Amer Wilson in the TV series, the only end I would probably accept is Lyra and Will ending up back together.
Okay I've finally watched this! The main thing I'm surprised you didn't mention was the age gap between Lyra and Malcolm. The age itself is okay, but combined with him being her teacher at one point gave me weird feelings. The lack of just simple communication between Pan and Lyra was so damn frustrating. I found the weirdness and the rejection of what we know from the original trilogy to be a part of the book. To me it was part of what signified Lyra's current pov on the world and how it's being manipulated by these authors.
You make so many points in this vid that I'm sure I've missed most of them but I'm totally up for a chat about this! And I ended up giving this 4*s and I really enjoyed it
Tbh I kinda forgot about the teacher part 🙃 it became more of an issue when I read Lyras Oxford afterwards! The communication issue was my biggest gripe, it was so childish to me and felt out of place for her being 20. It may be that I don't mesh much with YA anymore. Yeah you could be right that's why I'm still interested in reading the last book to see the outcome etc. I did give it 3* myself so I did like it I was just really disappointed. Probably my fault for expecting too much 😊
@@EleanorNicBhatair Oooh I need to read the novella's, and the communication I understood but also it pissed me off. I was so surprised when I saw the swearing in the book too. Is it even YA or is it adult? Maybe it's a bit of middle book syndrome for you, I hope so and I hope that you love the last book!
@@AbiofPellinor The target age is hard to work out but I think it is still classed as YA. I'm hoping the conclusion works for me, I was gutted I didn't love this book more! As I really liked La Belle Savage 😊
@@EleanorNicBhatair I'd been expecting MG for some reason so I was proper shocked hahaha. Fingers crossed!
I know this was 3 years ago but I just finished it and couldn't agree more. NOTHING HAPPENED
It was such a disappointment! Thanks for checking out this old video 😊
I saw this novel in book shops but didn't really know anything about it, so it did get my attention and still doesn't. But still an awesome review and video.
Thank you!
I just finished reading the original trilogy for the second time, I read it in two different languages to see how different they were and it was an interesting experiment, my plan is to read this book in the same way but now i am reconsidering.
That's so fun that you can do that!! Definitely watch some more reviews first, a lot of people did enjoy this book a lot more than me and you might be one of them 😊
thought it was brilliant
I'm so glad you loved it! 😊
this sounds not great at all, definitely a waste of time reading 😬
yeah, definitely not worth it in my opinion... I'm so sad!
its good if you love more mature themes