74th book of 2019. Not disappointing.
Picking up a beloved childhood series as an adult can be a gamble. It’s like rewatching films in high definition, and flaws that were buffed out in the haze of memory become glaringly apparent, while sometimes the author, out of ideas, ends up recycling the b-side plots into endless books of dwindling quality.
Exhibit A: the Ender’s Game series. It was a compelling first book, and even first series, but once Card started to get into geopolitics, a lot of questionable racism came out, discrediting the entire series in my mind.
So when picking up The Secret Commonwealth, a story that delves into Central Asian politics and tries to expand the world that Lyra lives in, I was a bit worried.
Do not fear! Pullman sticks the landing (or at least the cliffhanger), and while we get a more adult, more vulnerable Lyra, there is a rewarding story here with more depth than I dared hope for at the beginning.