The Subtle Knife (The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman)

Member Name: lady_natalie

Product:	The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
Date:	29/09/09 (59 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: great continuation from the previous book but different enough to be interesting

Disadvantages: none

The Subtle Knife is the second book and the Dark Materials trilogy and follows Northern Lights, both by Phillip Pullman.

Northern Lights ends with Iorek Byrnison, and armoured bear, defeating the current bear king of Svalbard and taking his place. Lyra Belacqua and her daemon pan spent the first novel travelling to Svalbard with the Gyptians to rescue her friend Roger who had been taken by the Gobblers. At the end of Northern lights she rescues him and goes to rescue her Uncle Asriel, who has been held prisoner at Svalbard under its old rule. He uses Roger to sever him from his daemon, as the energy from such a severance makes an opening between world, which Asriel travels through.

The Subtle Knife is very different from Northern Lights, which has Lyra as its main character throughout the entire book. This novel starts in our world with a boy called Will Parry, who is the same age is Lyra and has spent his childhood looking after his mum who has mental health problems. He finds someone to look after her from the time being and then goes home to take something with him that men have been going to his house to look for. But when he gets there the men are there, and in escaping her kills one. Not knowing where to go he ends up in Oxford where he sees a cat dissapear as its walking amongst some trees. When he goes to investigate he sees a square cut into the air which leads to an entirely different world. As a murderer he can think of no better place to hide, so he leaves for Cittagazze.

Lyra is also in this city and she and Will meet, and begin to help each other out, even though Lyra thinks that Will is terribly strange as he doesn't have a Daemon. They go into Wills Oxford so that Will can try to find out more information about his estranged father, and so that Lyra can find more out about dust. Reading the alethiometer takes her to Dr Mary Malone, who is also studying dust. Lyra goes back to talk to Mary the next day, and on the way back her alethiometer is stolen by Sir Charles Latrom, who she had met in Wills Oxford previously. He tells her that she can have it back, but only if she goes to Cittagazze and brings him an object called 'the subtle knife'. Will and Lyra manage to find the whereabouts of the knife, and Will becomes its master by accidentally killing its old master.

On discovering that the knife is used to cut through to other world they decide to use it to steal the alethiometer from Sir Charles. Here they find out that he is infact Lord Boreal, and from Lyras world, and in his room is Mrs Coulter. They manage to steal the alethiometer but are discovered doing so and only just escape.

Not knowing what to do now Will and Lyra go back to Cittagazze and search for Wills father. They are protected by the witches of Lyras world while they do so but there is soon trouble and Will and Lyra become separated. Will needs too look for Lyra and two angels agree to help, he also needs to find his father and hear the message he has for him, whilst Lyra must escape the clutches of the church and the fate they have in store for her, after they have heard an unusual prediction about her.

As Northern Lights was in just one world, this moves between two quite a lot, and there is still the connection to Lyras world. There are also two main characters now, as Will plays a very main part in the story, which means that there are less small characters featured in the novel. However, you do see a lot of the witches in the book, which I love, and the edition of the two angels at the end took me by surprise.

This book really has a different feel to it, most probably because of the addition of Will, you get to read about a very different personality than the Lyra that you're used to from Northern Lights. Also, the story is drastically different. The story does follow on from where it left off, but this isn't about the travels of Lyra any more. It gets a lot darker and more complicated and you find out a lot of important points in the plot. Lyra and Will both have their own self set tasks but they come together to help each other quite fast.

The church (the magisterial) becomes more important in the Subtle Knife where as in Northern Lights it was kind of in the background to Lyras story, and the part it really played in it only came out later on. However, now the reader knows the severity of the church, and they are still searching for Lyra, with the help of her mother, Mrs Coulter, who works for them. Lord Asriel is working directly against the church now, and rallying troupes to fight a war which started long ago. This really plays a huge part in the final book, and this book prepares the reader for that. Infact, a lot is set up in this book for the final one, and it is understandable that that had to happen, but i think it's done quite well, and it doesn't seem to detract from the quality of the subtle knife.

This book has a bit of an older feel than the last, it's not just a thoughtless story, there's a lot going on. Therefore I think slightly older children would like it more, younger ones might feel a bit bowled over by this point, and of course, I think it's a great childrens book for adults to read.

Summary: super second book in the dark materials triology