The Secret Commonwealth: The Book of Dust - Volume Two
No. of pages 736
Published: 2020
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This book is part of a book series called The Book Of Dust .
This book has been graded for interest at 12-17 years.
There are 736 pages in this book.
It is aimed at Young Adult readers. The term Young Adult (YA) is used for books which have the following characteristics: (1) aimed at ages 12-18 years, US grades 7-12, UK school years 8-15, (2) around 50-75k words long, (3) main character is aged 12-18 years, (4) topics include self-reflection, internal conflict vs external, analyzing life and its meaning, (5) point of view is often in the first person, and (6) swearing, violence, romance and sexuality are allowed.
This book was published in 2020 by Penguin Random House Children's UK .
Chris Wormell lives in North London with his wife and children. He was the winner of the Ragazza Prize at Bologna in 1991. His previous books for Jonathan Cape are Where I Live and What I Eat, Blue Rabbit and Friends and Blue Rabbit and Friends and Animal Train and Off to the Fair (to be published in 2001). Philip Pullman is one of the most highly respected children's authors writing today. He lives in Oxford.
This book is in the following series:
This book features the following characters:
Lyra Belacqua
Lyra Belacqua is the daughter of Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter. She was raised as an orphan in the sanctuary of Oxford’s Jordan College. Tough, likeable heroine Lyra, brave, independent and intensely loyal to her friends, is at the centre of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy in which she is drawn into a war between several parallel universes. The significance of her own role gradually becomes apparent and questions of destiny and free will come into play.
Will Parry
This book features the character Will Parry.
[Pullman] has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in rigour and stylistic elegance. This is a book for getting older with * Guardian, Book of the Week *
The Secret Commonwealth is ablaze with light and life. The writing is exquisite; every sentence sings ... To read Pullman is to experience the world refreshed, aglow, in Technicolour * Independent *
Lyra is all grown up in a rich, vivid sequel * Telegraph *
Engrossing * Financial Times *
Pullman's story is still thought-provoking ... This book elegantly weaves in live issues, from Europe's refugee crisis to facts in the post-truth era. And Pullman's prose is rewarding as ever * The Times *
The novel gallops forward, full of danger, delight and surprise. Nearly miraculous, it seems, is Pullman's ability to sketch character, place and motive in just a few lines * New Statesman *
A long, taxing, complex journey, laced with beauty, terror and philosophy * Metro *
As ever, Pullman's story is complex and vast but home to some of the finest storytelling in the 21st century. Revel in whole new worlds and enjoy one of literature's most wonderful heroines before she comes to HBO and the BBC * Stylist.co.uk *
Pullman is confronting readers with the horrors of our own world reflected back at us. In The Secret Commonwealth he creates a fearful symmetry * The Herald *
Pullman has created a fantasy world, made yet more satisfying in this new volume. This is a book for getting older with * Guardian *
REVIEWS FOR LA BELLE SAUVAGE: THE BOOK OF DUST VOLUME ONE:
Fans of His Dark Materials will find themselves joyfully immersed in a familiar world . . . meanwhile, awaiting first-time readers is all the pleasure of commencing their own journey into this most captivating of universes at the very beginning of Lyra's story
* Independent *
No one else writes like Pullman . . . entirely worth the 17-year wait * Imogen Russell Williams, Metro *
A rich, imaginative, vividly characterised rite-of-passage tale * Nicolette Jones, The Sunday Times *
High-octane adventure accompanies ingenious plotting * The Times *
