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The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials) by: Philip Pullman

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Rating: - the subtle knife

I was very pleased with this, it arrived when expected and was in perfect condition and safely packaged. I have no complaints

Rating: - Subtle Knife doesn't quite cut the mustard

The subtle knife of the title represents the height of philosophical and technological achievement for the once great city-state of Cittàgazze. More powerful than a traditional magic sword, The Knife is the ultimate weapon - one that can split open the smallest particles of matter. In Pullman's alternative universes, it becomes a new Excalibur that, in the hand of Lyra's new friend Will, has the power to kill God.

This is an altogether more uneven work than "Northern Lights". Whereas the earlier volume was like a collage of elements from all the fantasies and legends that you'd ever read, this has an irritatingly fragmented, channel-hopping quality. There is a narrative to do with Dust, temptation and Original Sin, but this just pops up occasionally, as if the author suddenly remembers that this is what he's supposed to be writing about.

As before, good and evil come in a range of guises. There are good and bad witches, of course, as well as the fabulously evil Mrs Coulter. Then there are the unmistakably bad Muscovite troops (shades of the Cold War) and angels who are on the side of, well, the angels (whichever side that is). The cast of evil scientists is supplemented by a token good scientist in the shape of physicist and ex-nun Molly Malone who is the source of one of the few moments of humour when she wires herself up to a computer to indulge in something that is a cross between a séance and the Turing Test.

One of the fundamental tenets of the trilogy is that children are naturally good. This seems to be dramatically undermined when the main child characters, Lyra and Will, are set upon by a crowd of feral children (complete with rifles) in a scene less reminiscent of the rival gangs of Lyra's Oxford than the dark malevolence of "Lord of the Flies".

It remains to be seen whether, in the final part of "His Dark Materials", Will succeeds in his mission to kill God and whether, in doing so he becomes the saviour of the multiverse or, like an earlier particle splitter, he becomes "Death, the shatterer of Worlds"*.


*(Quoted from the Bhagavad Gitã by Robert Oppenheimer on seeing the first atomic explosion)

Rating: - Better than Northern Lights

I really enjoyed Northern lights and couldn't see how Pullman would be able to make the sequel much better, but I'm glad to say he did. I thought The Subtle Knife was far better.

Unlike some reviewers I really enjoyed the fact that the novel focuses on Will, and other characters, rather than just solely Lyra. Although I like Lyra I don't think she's enough of a character to hold a whole series on her own so I really enjoyed this aspect of it.

One of the things that irritated me slightly in Northern Lights was Lyra's ability to solve everything immediately and not to get anything wrong. This is somewhat rectified in The Subtle Knife where both Will and Lyra make mistakes, making them far more rounded, and less irritating characters I thought!

I loved the idea of being able to enter and leave other worlds and I can't wait to read The Amber Spyglass to see how Pullman develops this idea further. The idea that characters in one world can be different characters in another was also intriguing, and adds to the level of unsureness (is that a word?) that is throughout the series.

I'd recommend this series to teenagers and maybe more mature, but younger, children- although start with Northern Lights first as otherwise you'll be totally confused!

Rating: - What happened?

I really enjoyed the first book, but the second is really bad. The introduction of Will takes the attention away from Lyra, a great central character. Put simply, good characters are wasted, a plot is hard to find, and all the good will built up in the first is betrayed in this novel. Which in fact is nothing more than an extended prologue for the third book.

Rating: - Read The Golden Compass first!

These books are excellent stories, that stand up just as well as reading for adults as they do for teenagers. To get the full benefit, however, I seriously recommend that the trilogy is read in sequence.

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