A Stunning Story. (The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman)

Member Name: Bryn Pearson

Product:	The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman
Date:	25/02/03 (93 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: strong plot, wonderful ideas

Disadvantages: you have to read book one first

'The Subtle Knife' is the second book in Philip Pullman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. While each of the three books contains a tale that largely works in its own right, they work best if you read them in order. I must warn you that it is nigh on impossible to review a book in a series without inevitably revealling things about how the first book ended.

'Nothern Lights' is the first book, which does totally stand alone as a tale. It introduces a girl called Lyra who lvies in a world a bit like ours, only there are armoured polar bears, daemons and strange magical goings on. I cannot hope to do the first book justice in a few lines here, so if you haven't read it, sorry. You should read it.

'The subtle knife', book the second, introduces us to a young man called William Parry. Twelve year old Will looks after his disturbed mother and daydreams about the explorer father who went on an expedition and never came back. When people start threatening his mother, Will moves her to somewhere safe, and, in looking for a hiding place himself, he stumbles upon a way into another world. There, he meets Lyra and Pantilaimon. It seems that Will and Lyra's quests (she is looking for knowledge about something she calls Dust) run close together. Between them, the two children start trying to find Will's father - John Parry. Will must eventually undertake to find a strange artifact called 'The Subtle knife'. This book introduces a third world, between Wills and Lyra's, a place caled Cittagazze, where there are only children. Most of the action takes place in this third realm.

Meanwhile, Lyra is being hunted by her ruthless mother, the witch clans lead by a wonderful character called Serafina Pekkala are getting involved with the action, Lord Asriel (Lyra's father) is up to something strange, there are angels, ballons and zeplins fillnig the skies and Lee Scorsby, aeronaut from book 1, is on a
quest himself to find the mysterious Stanislaus Grumman who might know of an artifact that could protect Lyra.

There are many plots and characters here, all carefully interwoven - it is quite a sophisticated story. There are no helpful/anoying 'in book one this happened' bits and pieces to help remind you, so you need to have been paying attention. There are a lot of characters, all well rounded and with different powers, skills, motivation and alliegances.

Inevitably this book suffers a touch from being the one in the middle - while there are many new and interesting ideas, the descriptions are not quite so rich, and it is assumed that you will remember a lot from the first book. (From what I've seen of much children's writing, and a fair bit of adult stuff, this is relatively unusual.) There's a fair bit of action, and the book ends at a very inconclusive moment, with vast amounts unexplained and unresolved - it is the build up for the big finale that will be the third book (I know what's going to happen, but I haven't read it yet.)

I would think that these are quite demanding, challenging books for young readers. They are well worth reading regardless of our age - there is an excellent story unravelling here, and there's a lot to be gained from devoting a few hours of your life to it. it's soemthing of a page turner, and the lack of conclusion at the end will send you running out to buy 'The Amber Spyglass' to find out what happens next.

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