Finished the novel this morning. Spoilers to follow.
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The novel is a grand spirited-adventure that ends very abruptly. I don't even mean ending on a cliffhanger like the first two entries of His Dark Materials. Rather the story reached its physical destination and just stops. No denouement, no reflection on the terrible and otherwordly events, no character closure (aside from Lyra as predicted), nothing. And I wouldn't be so bothered by this conclusion if the next novel continued directly after this one, but it doesn't: The Secret Commonwealth takes place 20 years later.
That aside, I largely enjoyed the story. New characters Malcolm, Hannah, and Alice are all engaging and well-drawn. I loved the further world building of the first half that fills in the cracks that His Dark Materials omitted and I thoroughly enjoyed the adventure Malcolm and Alice go through during the second half in order to protect baby Lyra after the catastrophic flood. Their immediate pursuant, Gerard Bonneville, unfortunately, is rather one-dimensional, acting mostly as a unnecessary villain to drive Malcolm and company to seek sanctuary, as if the CCD and all of its components (the League of St. Alexander, the Sisters of Holy Obedience, etc.) weren't enough. We get some background on him, but mostly from other characters' perspectives without Malcolm's knowledge, and other than his sexual deviance, we don't get a sense of the former Muscovite scientist and possible spy whenever Malcolm and company encounter him (granted his madness was spurred on by imprisonment, but the whole thing felt like a bad case of telling instead of showing). The only other seemingly purpose of the character was to act as a vessel to deliver the missing alethiometer to Malcolm, who then passes it onto Lyra, which itself felt unnecessary because I had figured the Oxford alethiometer was the one the Master of Jordan passed onto her (unless I'm forgetting something from The Northern Lights). I suppose some of these of issues will be resolved in the following entries, but these missing details felt like poorly written omissions.
I quite liked Hannah, scholar turn spy, although I found it weird that Pullman didn't provide any kind of physical description of the character, unless I somehow glazed over it. I kept varying my visualization of her, including her age, until based on some limited context of her background, I settled on a Emma Thompson-esque appearance. I hope we see more of her in The Secret Commonwealth because her story is largely abandoned upon the flooding, only to be seen once more and then forgotten about. In fact, this can be said about everyone in the story aside from Malcolm, Alice and Lyra, and while they weren't main characters (aside from Hannah), the lack of conclusion for them in relation to Malcolm and company (such as which nuns at St. Rosamund survived, Malcolm's parents finding out he's safe and why he disappeared, etc.) is a disappointing development.
All in all, it was a fun read (aside from the darker moments involving Bonneville) but it didn't feel necessary and doesn't stand well on its own. The Northern Lights is my favorite novel of the series, and while it ends on a depressing cliffhanger and asks more questions than it answers, the adventure itself stood on its own as a character piece for Lyra. Aside from Malcolm's devotion to the dearly departed La Belle Sauvage, this entry feels more dependent on the following two entries for understanding and context, which makes it all the more baffling that The Secret Commonwealth is set 20 years later.
I know this review comes off rather negatively, but I really did enjoy this novel. I hope to see more of Malcolm, Alice, and Hannah, and we find out what they were up to during Lyra's adventures in His Dark Materials.
