His Dark Materials: The Subtle Knife (Book 2)
#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • “UNPUTDOWNABLE.”—The Washington Post • An Entertainment Weekly All-Time Greatest Novel • A Newsweek Top 100 Book of All Time • The Inspiration for the HBO Original Series His Dark Materials
DON’T MISS THE EPIC FINALE TO LYRA’S STORY: THE ROSE FIELD, AVAILABLE NOW!
The spellbinding sequel to the modern fantasy classic The Golden Compass.
“The story gallops with ferocious momentum . . . Devilishly inventive.”—The New York Times Book Review
Lost in a new world, Lyra finds Will—a boy on the run, a murderer—a worthy and welcome ally. For this is a world where soul-eating Specters stalk the streets and witches share the skies with troops of angels.
Each is searching—Lyra for the meaning of Dark Matter, Will for his missing father—but what they find instead is a deadly secret, a knife of untold power. And neither Lyra nor Will suspects how tightly their lives, their loves, their destinies are bound together . . . until they are split apart.
Look for the modern fantasy classics of HIS DARK MATERIALS:
The Golden Compass • The Subtle Knife • The Amber Spyglass
And Lyra’s adventures continue in THE BOOK OF DUST:
La Belle Sauvage • The Secret Commonwealth • The Rose Field
DON’T MISS THE EPIC FINALE TO LYRA’S STORY: THE ROSE FIELD, AVAILABLE NOW!
The spellbinding sequel to the modern fantasy classic The Golden Compass.
“The story gallops with ferocious momentum . . . Devilishly inventive.”—The New York Times Book Review
Lost in a new world, Lyra finds Will—a boy on the run, a murderer—a worthy and welcome ally. For this is a world where soul-eating Specters stalk the streets and witches share the skies with troops of angels.
Each is searching—Lyra for the meaning of Dark Matter, Will for his missing father—but what they find instead is a deadly secret, a knife of untold power. And neither Lyra nor Will suspects how tightly their lives, their loves, their destinies are bound together . . . until they are split apart.
Look for the modern fantasy classics of HIS DARK MATERIALS:
The Golden Compass • The Subtle Knife • The Amber Spyglass
And Lyra’s adventures continue in THE BOOK OF DUST:
La Belle Sauvage • The Secret Commonwealth • The Rose Field
BUY THE BOOK
Community Reviews
An interesting second installment in the His Dark Materials trilogy. These books take me a little bit to get into, especially on audiobook, but once you're smack in the middle this series has no trouble holding you. My only other complain might be that I'm never really sure that the end is the end except that I can see the book is physically ending. The climax is big, but it often also feels like there are equally large parts elsewhere aside from the climax. Maybe that's just me.
Things that I Really Liked (Which Might Include Spoilers):
-Trepanning. I've always thought the idea of drilling holes in skulls to be interesting, though putting it that way makes me sound really twisted. I've always wondered what prompts people, particularly people without access to modern tools and anesthetics and antibiotics, to laboriously, painfully bore holes in their skulls. I also think it really intrigues me that you can't really know what happens as a result unless you experience it yourself. All you have are stories. Damn. That's so trippy and interesting. I love it.
-John Perry's story. I enjoyed his letters immensely. Maybe it was that he was played by the beloved and venerable Julian Glover, but he seemed soft and clever and endearing. And did I get excited when I realized that the passageway to the "spirit world" that the Eskimos (Inuits) discovered was really the doorway into the other world that the Subtle Knife had opened.
-The Subtle Knife itself. What a cool blade. I'm gonna be real -- it's way cooler right now than the Alethiometer.
-How great a liar Lyra is. Love it. I love how the narrator is like, "she was smart, not necessary good at studying and stuff, but she was a good liar -- quick and convincing."
Stuff I Didn't Like As Much (Definitely Spoilers Ahead):
-Lyra is Eve and I feel like Pullman is pulling (no pun intended) for Will to be Adam. And yeah, I like Lyra and I like Will, but I don't need a romance. It yucks me out.
-There was mention of a Burger King. That took me right out of the story into somewhere mundane and unpleasant and even now sticks out like a sore thumb. Cinema, whatever. Burger King? Naw, dawg.
-THAT WITCH GODDAMN KILLED WILL'S DAD RIGHT AS THEY REALIZED THEY WERE FATHER AND SON FOR NO GOOD DAMN REASON AND THEN KILLED HERSELF LIKE WHAT?? ....I was mad...
-I had heard that this series was controversial because they kill God and whatnot and I also heard that that mostly happens in the third book, but I'm sort of annoyed by the idea of angels and that Lyra is helping reenact the beginning of humanity and everything. I might like this better by the end of the series but right now I'm kinda meh on the whole thing. Lukewarm at best.
Anyway, time to read the last one! This is definitely a worthwhile read. Much better than many other series aimed at middle readers. Good vocabulary, complicated characters, profound underlying ideas... Can't wait to see how it all resolves! (Or if it even does...)
Things that I Really Liked (Which Might Include Spoilers):
-Trepanning. I've always thought the idea of drilling holes in skulls to be interesting, though putting it that way makes me sound really twisted. I've always wondered what prompts people, particularly people without access to modern tools and anesthetics and antibiotics, to laboriously, painfully bore holes in their skulls. I also think it really intrigues me that you can't really know what happens as a result unless you experience it yourself. All you have are stories. Damn. That's so trippy and interesting. I love it.
-John Perry's story. I enjoyed his letters immensely. Maybe it was that he was played by the beloved and venerable Julian Glover, but he seemed soft and clever and endearing. And did I get excited when I realized that the passageway to the "spirit world" that the Eskimos (Inuits) discovered was really the doorway into the other world that the Subtle Knife had opened.
-The Subtle Knife itself. What a cool blade. I'm gonna be real -- it's way cooler right now than the Alethiometer.
-How great a liar Lyra is. Love it. I love how the narrator is like, "she was smart, not necessary good at studying and stuff, but she was a good liar -- quick and convincing."
Stuff I Didn't Like As Much (Definitely Spoilers Ahead):
-Lyra is Eve and I feel like Pullman is pulling (no pun intended) for Will to be Adam. And yeah, I like Lyra and I like Will, but I don't need a romance. It yucks me out.
-There was mention of a Burger King. That took me right out of the story into somewhere mundane and unpleasant and even now sticks out like a sore thumb. Cinema, whatever. Burger King? Naw, dawg.
-THAT WITCH GODDAMN KILLED WILL'S DAD RIGHT AS THEY REALIZED THEY WERE FATHER AND SON FOR NO GOOD DAMN REASON AND THEN KILLED HERSELF LIKE WHAT?? ....I was mad...
-I had heard that this series was controversial because they kill God and whatnot and I also heard that that mostly happens in the third book, but I'm sort of annoyed by the idea of angels and that Lyra is helping reenact the beginning of humanity and everything. I might like this better by the end of the series but right now I'm kinda meh on the whole thing. Lukewarm at best.
Anyway, time to read the last one! This is definitely a worthwhile read. Much better than many other series aimed at middle readers. Good vocabulary, complicated characters, profound underlying ideas... Can't wait to see how it all resolves! (Or if it even does...)
In some ways, less compelling than the first of the series. The mythology of the first one, I guess, was more interesting to me. I also liked the side characters from the first better—Iorek Byrnison, John Faa, Farder Coram—and the cultures they represented.
That said, this book was still a good one. The action & pacing were steady, and the suspense perhaps even increased. I'm ready for the next, to finish the series.
That said, this book was still a good one. The action & pacing were steady, and the suspense perhaps even increased. I'm ready for the next, to finish the series.
Philip Pullman is a great writer. I read this years ago as a young adult and it was fun to come back to it, this time reading it to my ten year old daughter. We love Lyra's passion and ferocity, and we enjoyed watching her friendship with Will develop into one of tenderness and great loyalty. We also loved to hate Mrs Coulter and her horrible golden monkey. Pullman's narrative can be a little hard work at times, and there were times we had to stop to look up words in the dictionary that I did not know, but this was a good education for the both of us. We are excited for the final book in this trilogy!
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