The Subtle Knife

His Dark Materials - Book II - The Subtle Knife

by Philip Pullman
Published by Yearling
1997

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Plot Summary

The Subtle Knife is the second book of Phillip Pullmans's Trilogy - His Dark Materials. The book begins by introducing us to Will Parry, a twelve year old boy who has just accidently killed a strange man who had broken into his house to steal his father's papers. Will has never met his father, as he dissapeared a few months before Will was born.

Terrified at what he has just done, Will flees to Oxford to hide. He meets a friendly and enchanting cat who leads him to a door. Will enters this door with his father's limited possesions in hand, and ends up in Citagazze, the city between worlds, deserted by grown-ups and stragely haunted.
This is where Will meets Lyra (the protagonist from the first book in the trilogy series). Together they embark on a journey to find their lost fathers and uncover secrets from the past and present.

Comments

I really loved reading the first book of this series, I couldn't wait to get my hands on the second. I really liked how the book started out; I knew that I was in for a completely different adventure. However, the more that I read, the less engaged I became. Lyra's spirit seemed to have dissapeared. She was what compelled me to read the Golden Compass as quickly as possible, however, it took me weeks to get through the second in the series.
The tale was less convincing, and I could not escape that little voice in my head telling me that the situations that the two friends got themselves into were far too unbelievable (and gorey at times).
The one thing that I did like about the book was that the characters had matured a bit from the first book. I would recommend this book, however I do not think that it should be read back to back. I grew tired of Pullman's style of writing and may have enjoyed it more had I not tried to read the second book so soon after the first book.

Age Range - 12-18

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