#SecretCommonwealth follow-up note: all right, I finally had a chance to reread my original reaction post:
archiveofourown.org/works/216679...
There are some details I missed or misremembered that time around. Example, I had forgotten that Malcolm actually took the initiative to kill the--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 33:
Lyra's guide tells some stories about the creatures in this region, including a camel-like species that parallel the panserbjørne: they have language and culture, but their daemons are internal.
Sold her a salve for her injuries, which seems to help. Stray mention--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 32, the rest of it:
Priest points Lyra to the hotel where the daemon-sellers find customers. She gets a room. People start visiting, with business cards, sales pitches, product photos.
One of them cites Gottfried as a happy customer! Lyra hasn't met the guy, so she's--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 32:
Lyra arrives in Seleukeia, which in our world is in Iraq. Can't find a hotel or any English-speakers, ends up sleeping on the street. Found and taken in by...the daemonless caste? Sure wish she had a vocab book. They can't share their separation backstories--
She gathered the little cards together with an automatic hand. That was the phrase that came to her, as if her hand were purely mechanical, not alive at all, as if the messages from her skin and her nerves were changes in the anbaric current along a copper wire, not anything conscious. With that vision of her body as something dead and mechanical came a sense of limitless desolation. She felt not only as if she were dead now, but that she’d always been dead, and had only dreamed of being alive, and that there was no life in the dream either: it was only the meaningless and indifferent jostling of particles in her brain, nothing more. But that little chain of ideas provoked a spasm of reaction, and she thought, No! That’s a lie! That’s a slander! I don’t believe it! Except that she did believe it, just then, and it was killing her.
#SecretCommonwealth catch-up notes:
Chapter 28 had this passage, which I wanted to bring up when I could include a screencap of the full thing. It's the first (and only?) time all book when Lyra considers an idea I wanted to see much earlier: If she's having an existential crisis about "what if--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 31:
Oh, joy, it's the SA chapter. Lyra ends up on a train with a group of soldiers, presumably on their way to join Delamare's Rose Inquisition...and a bunch of them attack. All the easy escapes, lucky coincidences, and conveniently helpful strangers she's gotten--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 30:
Alice! She gets to be in the book at least one more time! Oh good.
CCD comes to Jordan to interrogate her about Lyra's trip. Alice is delightful, hostile and unimpressed, bringing back the full sarcasm and acid-tongued mockery she got so good at as a teenager.
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 29:
The department that oversees Oakley Street moves to shut it down. Staff quietly follow a pre-arranged plan to get all their stuff independently secured.
The Magisterium is driving this, and the rhetoric is that OS is "counter-modern." I'm trying to think of any--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 28:
Lyra sneaking to the train station. Her whirling thoughts include "Pan, why did you go to the Blue Hotel?"
She still doesn't know he *is* going there. It's just "the only idea she had." Has she forgotten it was a wild guess? (Has *Pullman* forgotten...?)
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 27:
Lyra gets a hotel room in town, goes people-watching. Reference to a daemon smoking (sharing with its human), two others sharing a bag of nuts.
Cut to Pan, somewhere rural, finding a daemonless girl. She was a refugee on the boat we saw earlier (mentions a--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 26:
Malcolm meets with a contact, gets taken to a conference of rose-growers, right on the day when armed Magisterium agents show up and bolt the doors.
Remember Delamare's whole "convince the people to not even care what truth is" plan? It's not part of this--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 25:
Lyra in Greece, seeking the woman from the address book that Kubiček flagged as "a helpful daemonless person." Called a Princess, grandmotherly age, big expensive estate, lives alonwme except servant(s).
Lyra acts like a witch to get admitted, but once inside--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 24:
Back with Mal, at his next travel stop. Officials go through his papers and call his contacts to make sure he's a real scholar. Glad to see that kind of security prep coming into the plot a bit.
Olivier tries to tail Malcolm, Mal turns the tables and tails *him*,--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 23, the rest of it:
Lyra has charge of an older child now, maybe 5? Wraps her in a blanket, gets her food, rocks her and sings her nursery rhymes.
The child's daemon cuddles up to Lyra for warmth. Another parallel I really like, echoing baby Pan kneading on Mal's--
All right, back to the #SecretCommonwealth. 6 hours of audiobook time left. I could knock this out by end-of-work tomorrow.
Or I could pause it a bunch and barely get through any! Let's find out.
(I'm 4th in line with my Rose Field hold, on 10 copies. Shouldn't be long now.)
Chapter 23, thread 1:
#SecretCommonwealth roundup post 2 on DW, including cute daemon photos:
erinptah.dreamwidth.org/2026/01/04/s...
It also has some catch-up notes, which I'll copy here for the sake of being a completist...
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 22, the title just cones right out and spoils which death flag is about to pay off.
New Pope's daemon is a philomela nightingale. "Lover of song."
This poor man is so senile. And it highlights how sweet and gentle he is. Can't remember anyone's name, but truly--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 21:
Olivier tailed Pan's visit to Gottfried. A CCD agent tailed Olivier. Scramble as Olivier tries to get Pan, then the agent gets Olivier in turn.
Olivier didn't plan to touch Pan, he brought a net. The agent just grabs bare-handed. Oof.
Less time has passed than--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 20, the rest of it:
So, this magician. He reminded Lyra of Asriel, and he's doing a parallel "needed to sacrifice a person to kickstart a project of his, used some mysterious power to have the plot steer one in his direction."
Lyra bringing him the fire guy was--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 20: a solid hour of audiobook time. If this spills over into 2 threads, please blame Pullman.
(I'm using the OpenVibe app to crosspost this to Mastodon & Bsky. It maxes out at 10 posts per thread.)
Montages of Lyra's trip across Europe. Spots two others without--
#SecretCommonwealth catch-up notes:
- New Pope is a sweet, frail old guy. Too kind and shy to abuse his new powers, or make anyone think he was a bad choice! Maybe Delamare's goal is "be the evil grand vizier who has the real power"? Or maybe he plans for this guy to die soon, free up the spot.
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 19:
Pan arrives in the German town where the novelist lives, finds a school for the blind, says "my human is just over there, can you help us get an address?"
More on the theme of daemon physicality: Pan isn't even worried that the blind student's daemon might see his--
Got some art to work on tonight, so #SecretCommonwealth chapter 18 can keep me company.
Malcolm comes to check out the Conclave, and his visual aura leads him to an abandoned (?) boat. Finally leading him somewhere plot-relevant that he wouldn't have found alone?
Finds Talbot in a café,--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 17:
Pan reaches the end of his hidden journey, Lyra starts a crowded one. Almost halfway through the book, our first actual example of "Lyra wants to lie her way out of trouble, but can't come up with anything."
Isn't this what they prepped a whole witch backstory--
#SecretCommonwealth, finally finishing chapter 16:
Olivier not turning in much new alethiometry. At first I thought he was sabotaging Delamare for being a creep, but it turns out he's really not getting much. Thinks Lyra has "found some way to block" his surveillance.
We know Lyra isn't doing--
#SecretCommonwealth, the Talbot philosophy book:
Lyra starts into the "phones aren't real" chapter. Society has organized itself around the massive conspiracy of convincing everyone that phones exist.
Why do they seem able to send signals to each other? Our pychological yearning for--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 16:
Plotting w/Coram about how Lyra will pass herself off as a witch while traveling. Seems the obvious thing to do. I expected people were assuming that already...but a full fake backstory to go with it can't hurt.
Bringing up "Lyra can't just improv this kind of--
#SecretCommonwealth chapter 15:
Reaching the gyptians. Nice to see Lyra reconnect w/old friends.
Lyra: You once said I had witch-oil in my soul. What did you mean?
Ma Costa: lol idk (but it looks like I was right, huh)
I like this. Young Lyra took everything these adults said as very serious,--
New year, old goal, same book: still working on this #SecretCommonwealth re-listen. Chapter 14 is go:
Lyra's ex (his name is Dick) finds the Trout, gives Malcolm some exposition. (Also, hears more about Mal's travel plans than you'd expect of a secret agent...)
I do like the exploration of "how--
Okay, I promise, just *one* thread for #SecretCommonwealth catch-up observations.
- Mal did think it was nice/attractive when Lyra was happy/pleased, not just when she was shy, so there's a plus
- Lyra thinks Olivier looks like Will. Had their first shared Force-vision while she was thinking--
