The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman

The second in Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy takes a giant step into cross-world politics, while keeping the story easy enough for kids to follow. The lead character, Lyra Belacqua, is joined in her quest by Will Parry, a boy who, it seems, also has a destiny to fulfill. Meanwhile, the rest of the heroes from the first book split off on other quests, all of which will eventually lead to the same end point. Every now and then, you read a book which gives you a feeling of being involved, that something new and exciting is just around the corner. The Subtle Knife does just this. Some unanswered questions from the first book, Northern Lights, are ...

The Subtle Knife is the second of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, a truly epic adventure embracing religion, science and classic adventure. The series is very much one story broken into three books, rather than a set of interlinked, but essentially stand-alone stories, such as those of Narnia, or to a lesser extent, Harry Potter; as such, you'd really want to read Northern Lights before moving on to this or the third book, The Amber Spyglass. My review of the first book outlines some of the basic concepts of the trilogy more fully than I will here. ~ A Recap ~ In Northern Lights, our protagonist Lyra, and her dæmon (a physical ...

How do you even begin to write about a book like this? A book so unlike any you have read before, a book so absorbing, so original, so intelligent and so magnificently written? A book that makes you want to rush home from work just so that you can pick it up again and find out what happens next? It's not any easy thing to do, I can tell you. I am sure that many people have been put off trying the His Dark Materials series (of which this is the second instalment) because it has been unfairly labelled as children's fiction; let me assure you that this is a story that works on many levels and is just as good for adults as it is for children. It is the best ...