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Summary: A Strong link in this Magical Chain.
Review: As the second book of this imaginative and intelligent fantasy series, The Subtle Knife does its job well. As a standalone book, it excels. What's with the paradoxical comparison, you ask? The other two are just so GOOD. I couldn't help but compare this series to Narnia. The usage of young characters in the parallel world archetype was made infamous by C.S. Lewis. Yet, this series is different and I think, better suited to older children. It is certainly more entertaining than most intelligent prose you'll ever find.
Rating: 
Summary: From bad to worse...
Review: I plodded onto this from The Golden Compass (there is no compass!!). You know, this book is akin to those adventure video games out there. There is only one way to go, and you can't go to the next level until you've cleared the one before. The book seems to have been written by artificial intelligence. Its characters are even more lifeless than in the first installment. The attack on christianity continues, and now God himself is the source of all our troubles. But the angels are trying to kill him with the aid of our little heroes. Give me a break ! I wonder what the Church did to Mr. Pullman when he was little, because these books seem to have been written as his personal revenge. No matter, The Subtle Knife is completely boring and mediocre anyway. The most surprising thing is how many reviewers including The New York Times can recommend rubbish such as this. Perhaps religion-bashing is appealing to their 21st century utilitarian minds. Just follow my advice and pick your copy of The Two Towers once again...
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Summary: Three Points to make...
Review: There are three points I would like to make, and I'll do my best to be brief. First of all, he can write with more talent than Tolkien, C.S. Lewis and 95% of fantasy writers. His writing is lyrical and melodious, and reading his books is a vastly enjoyable experience. He can characterize within a few lines what takes Tolkien 10 pages (reread "The Fellowship of the Ring") and the plot in this book is amazing. Secondly, Philip Pullman has guts. In this book, he questions one of the more powerful associations in our world, the Church, and attacks the horrible and evil things it has done "in the name of god". I'm glad somebody is finally writing about this! Nobody says it's okay to "forget Hiroshima" or "be sick of the Holocaust", so why does the Church only have to offer weak apology for the deaths of thousands of innocent people. That someone is finally writing about this is proof that it did happen. Lastly, I fear that this books categorization as children's or Young Adult will lose it many readers, although anyone could read it. I'm 14 years old myself but I stopped reading "kids" books around 3 years ago. I thought it showed maturity. This series prompted me to check the Young Adult book shelf at the book store once more... In conclusion, if you have a closed mind, in that you are a devout whatever or you "don't read kid's books", then you'll miss one of the best books of the second half of the 20th century.
Rating: 
Summary: Part two continues excellence
Review: The second leg of a trilogy is usually the least remarkable. After all, the characters and their environment have already been covered in the first leg. The conflict is usually well documented, and you certainly can't bring it to a climax in book two. But like some other classic trilogies, "His Dark Materials" offers up a remarkable second stage in "The Subtle Knife." For the "Twin Towers," Tolkein created a new baddie to battle. In "The Empire Strikes Back," Lucas performed the old cliff-hanger trick, he got all his characters into trouble and just left them there, hanging. Dondaldson's "Illearth War" introduces a new character and, like Tolkein, barely staves off disaster until next time. Pullman uses techniques from all of these successful stage twos to write a truly exciting and lively second book of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, "The Subtle Knife." First, there's a new character, Will Parry. Then there's some cliff-hanging (which I won't reveal). Then there's the amassing of armies and the taking of sides, as the conflict introduced in "The Golden Compass" begins to reveal itself. "The Subtle Knife" is a great book for a number of reasons. First, is the way Pullman slowly reveals the workings and conflicts of the parallel worlds, making the revelation as suspenseful as the cliff-hanging action. Second, is Pullman's gift for character. Will is a remarkable character, a boy forced to grow up too fast, who is serious and frightened, yet occasionally shows glimpses of his youth in telling moments. And third, is Pullman's gift of subtle social commentary, making Will Parry, for example, a murderer. Or by bringing 20th century government bureaucracy into the struggle between good and evil. Can't wait to read the third book.
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Summary: An exciting addition to the series
Review: This is probably the most genuinely exciting addition to Pullman's series, with a thrilling knife fight in a tower and a great new addition to the cast of characters in the sorrowful young English boy Will. Pullman's canvas seems to get a bit too broad at times (you feel he has some difficulty keeping track of the many subplots he's set in motion--a deficiency which will haunt his thrid installment, THE AMBER SPYGLASS), but this is still a rousing read in the tradition of C. S. Lewis, J. R. R. Tolkien and even Robert Louis Stevenson.
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Summary: The Magic Continues
Review: In the debate people have over sequels versus originals, I'd have to chalk one up for the sequel camp. Having just read "The Golden Compass", I wouldn't of believed Philip Pullman could top himself, but boy does he ever. The second installment of the "Dark Materials" trilogy begins with the introduction of Will Parry. Twelve years old, smart, and fiercely protective of his Mother, in self defense he commits a murder.Consequently, this sends him on a wild chase that at its' end finds him face to face with our heroine, Lyra. What happens then, and how their individual quests are related through possibly hundreds of worlds is the heart of part two. I loved this book. I loved the addition of Will, and the beautiful friendship he and Lyra develop. I thought the action never let up for a second, and had no idea where it was headed. I also loved the focus moving from just Lyra, as it was in the first book, to ample time with all the other various characters. It made them more tangible, more easy to connect with. The only thing that's misleading about the book is its' reading level.The cover art makes you think you're about to read something lightweight and sugary. A fairy tale to share with the kids. It's not! I would love to give these to my nephew who loves the Harry Potter books, but don't know if he'd grasp all the concepts Pullman is weaving. He's constantly making you question who's bad and who's good. And maybe that's his intention, and it will all be clear in the final book. I can't wait. Cause this one ended as a true cliff hanger.
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Summary: The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials trilogy Book Two)
Review: In the heart- stopping sequel to The Golden Compass, masterful author Phillip Pullman once again delivers the excitement in a wonderful and unforgettable work. The Subtle Knife is one of the best books I've read in my life, and the story is beautiful. Lyra storms into a new world, angry from the brutal death of her friend Roger. Then she meets Will, and before long, they become friends and learn to trust each other through thick and thin. All the while Will must serve a haunting purpose : to be the bearer of the Subtle Knife. But can he use the power of the knife to protect Lyra from deadly hands?
Rating:
Summary: A worthy sequel to The Golden Compass
Review: I came across this series when it was recommended as a good thing to read while waiting for the next Harry Potter to come out. I then found myself in the situation of waiting with bated breath for the third book in this series to come out! If anything these are better than the Harry Potter books, because they have a bit more depth, and a little more darkness. You know when Harry gets into trouble, that he will get out of it, and you won't need to fear for him for a long time. When Lyra and Will get into trouble in this series, you really do find yourself worrying that something bad will happen. This book actually starts in the real world, the one we live in. The first book started in a parallel world, that is like ours, just moved a bit sideways. We follow the adventures of Will, who lives with his mother. His father has gone exploring and has been away many years. Will has to kill some men who try to steal the only posession of his father's that his mother still has, and then escapes. He then goes into another world, with a whole new set of creatures, and meets another child who needs to find a place in the world with very little help from her parents. It's Lyra from the first book. Prophecies, witches (both good and bad), palaces and mystery abound. A little more is revealed about dust, and what is going on in these parallel worlds. I think that these books deserve to be compared with Tolkien. You just want to lose yourself in the world that they create, and it raises the same big questions, against a backdrop of a struggle between good and evil. It is not always clear what is good and what is evil. They have the magic combination of being difficult to put down, and easy to reread. Pullman is not heavy in his treatment of the church. The villainous churchmen exist in a different world from ours, and it seems fairly clear that they are only that way because of the way that this world has progressed. There is no criticism of the church in our world, and Pullman has nothing against religion. So don't worry that this book will turn your child into a Satanist or an atheist. It might enchant them, so don't let them read it if you're worried about that. My father read me Tolkien when I was six, and I can't wait to read this book to my daughter, who is six months. In the meantime, I will re-read it myself.
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Summary: It's a must Read
Review: Dear Ms. Silvestro, I just finished The Subtle Knife, by Phillip Pullman. Lyra and Will Just, the main characters start by meeting each other in an abandoned house in the city of Ci'tiggaze. Nether of these young adults were from this world, and they were both running from the law. Will, the boy, had murdered somebody from are world, Earth. Will found his way to a window in to a different world. He walked along the streets, and strangely there were no adults in this town, Ci'tiggaze. He floundered around until he decided he needed some sleep, and he went into a house were Lyra attacked him. Lyra had a different story; she had walked over a bridge her father made. She said there was a fog blocking her view so she doesn't know the way back. Lyra has a spirit called a dÆmon (dee-mon), which is connected to her by fate, love, strength, and saneness. This spirit can change to any animal shape he likes. Normally a boy has a girl dÆmon, and a girl has a boy dÆmon. Lyra has an aliethiometer, which is also known as a truth teller. The name Aliethiometer comes from the word alieth means true in a language from Lyra's world. They were in a world were there were strange creatures called specters who eat peoples sole's and dÆmon's. These creatures do not affect children, in fact only adults can see them, and only adults fear them. The specters fear something to a knife, not just any knife but the subtle knife. The subtle knife can cut through any material in the millions of worlds. Will retrieves this knife after a fight with a man who stole the knife from the bearer, the one who should hold the knife. Will puts up a big fight and wins it. He loses two fingers in the fight; the bearer tells him later that that is the symbol of the rightful one who should carry the knife. Then the bearer teaches Will how to use the knife. First he teaches Will how to use the knife to cut through any material in the world, and then he teaches will how to make windows from one world two another. Later a group of witches from Lyra's world come to help her travel without getting hurt. A witch gets captured and gives away a name that can destruct Lyra, Eve. Than Lyra's evil mother, Ms. Coulter, captures Lyra and the book ends, but it will continue in The Amber Spy-glass book 1l1. I linked with Will because at one point in the book he told the previous bearer that he didn't want the knife. I would object to the knife to because as soon as I got the knife, I'd become a wanted person to all the robbers and betrayers in that world. Will didn't have a choice he had to take the knife, for the knife had chosen him. "The Subtle Knife offers everything we could have wished for, and more. For a start, there's a young hero--from our world--who is a match for Lyra Silvertongue and whose destiny is every bit as shattering. Like Lyra, Will Parry has spent his childhood playing games. Unlike hers, though, his have been deadly serious. This 12-year-old long ago learned the art of invisibility: if he could erase himself, no one would discover his mother's increasing instability and separate them." says Kerry Fried. He also says, "As the novel opens, Will's enemies will do anything for information about his missing father, a soldier and Arctic explorer who has been very much airbrushed from the official picture. Now Will must get his mother into safe seclusion and make his way toward Oxford, which may hold the key to John Parry's disappearance. But en route and on the lam from both the police and his family's tormentors, he comes upon a cat with more than a mouse on her mind: "She reached out a paw to pat something in the air in front of her, something quite invisible to Will." What seems to him a patch of everyday Oxford conceals far more: "The cat stepped forward and vanished." Will, too, scrambles through and into another oddly deserted landscape--one in which children rule and adults (and felines) are very much at risk. Here in this deathly silent city by the sea, he will soon have a dustup with a fierce, flinty little girl: "Her expression was a mixture of the very young--when she first tasted the cola--and a kind of deep, sad wariness." Soon Will and Lyra (and, of course, her dÆmon's, Pantalaimon) uneasily embark on a great adventure and head into greater tragedy." I definitely agree with Frank Fried. He really describes The Subtle Knife. Although He doesn't define DÆmon at all that well he gives a good report!
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Summary: Religious Criticism? what?
Review: The Subtle Knife is a very good book, make no mistake about it. On the surface its very thrilling and invloving- Pullman has a very good gift for fleshing out and involving us in his characters (e.g. his Sally Lockhart series). However, once you work deeper into the message of the book, Pullman seems to be saying- 'the church is bad; God is questionable.' Readers who try to skirt around it by saying that its not our church, but Lyra's, and that it could be a different God, are missing the point. Its not just the church thats under fire here (remember Lord Asriel thinking the Church too weak an enemy) but God and his institutions. However, although this message may frankly upset devout believers, that is no reason not to read this book. Anybody who claims to be a true believe should at least think about their beliefs and why they are holding them, and if all you read is comforting pro-Christian literature, thats not going to happen. People criticized this book for attacking Christianity; people responded that you shouldn't censor it; now some are replying that censorship is not criticism. One reviewer even regretted having read the first bok if he knew what was in store for him. BUT- a critism of faith is not a personal attack. And a person should always be skeptical about his own faith if he is a rational person. If he believes in God he should have a rationale rather than -"If i don't belive in God I'll burn in hell." Anyone who thinks readers will burn in hell for this book, thats utter nonsense. I'm already burning in hell anyway by Christian standards (I'm agnostic). If you read this book and think about it it may challenge you; but is that a bad thing?
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