His Dark Materials II: The Subtle Knife - Philip Pullman

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 ... more

Introduction Well this is part two of three of my review of the His Dark Materials Trilogy. This review is of the second book, which is called the Subtle Knife. As those who have read my first review will already be aware, the other two books in the trilogy are called Northern Lights and the Amber Spyglass. The books were written by Philip Pullman and the series itself came third in the BBC’s Big Read. I bought this book basically because I just had to know what happened after the first one! I’m so glad I only discovered these books last year as if I’d had to wait between the real time of ... more

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 ... more

I picked up “The Subtle Knife” expecting to pick up Lyra’s story where “The Northern Lights” had left off. Instead the book opens by introducing its main character, Will. We find Will, not in Lyra’s world, but in our own. “The Subtle Knife” switches between three worlds- Lyra’s (read more about this in previous review of “The Northern Lights”), our own, and a third, intermediate world. Each has its own characteristics, different dangers, different interpretations on the “dust” of Lyra’s world, and different species of beings. Seems a bit complicated, doesn’t it? But it’s not actually that hard ... more

I heard over the weekend that Philip Pullman’s “The Amber Spyglass” (The concluding part of the “His Dark Materials” trilogy, of which this is book two) did not make the Booker shortlist. A snooty Waterstones sales person was heard to remark “Well it is ONLY a children’s book”. Whilst the main protagonists of this series may be children this is definitely a series for all ages. This carries on from the first book where Lyra a twelve year old girl has left her own world by way of the path to the Northern Lights discovered by Lord Asriel. She arrives in the world of Cittagazze a place of silence ... more