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Summary: The Hand...
Review: William Parry, son of John Parry the ex-marine/explorer. A new character, a new perspective, this book is my favorite out of the series, it is what I believe to be utterly fantastic. Poor hand!!! The knife itself is something I would love to have in my possession. This book is so original!!!
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Summary: Captivating!
Review: Unlike other children fantasy books, Philip Pullman deals with more serious and darker things- he deals with death and murder.
In the first few pages, we learn that the hero, Will has just killed a man and is on the run for his life. This may shock several readers, as the theme of murder is rarely, if ever dealt with in fantasy books.Even the ending is somewhat sad. I have never came across a fantasy book which has an unhappy ending. The theme of loss constantly recurs in the book, and it can be quite shocking to those who expect something.... happy. There were people actually DIED! I am not just talking about the bad guys here. However, I am not saying that this is a bad thing. In fact it is just the opposite. Not your typical fantasy, run-of-the-mill book here. It is, of course very shocking to find that the story revolves around God and the rebel angels that got thrown to hell. Pullman implicts throughout the book that God was wrong, and all wickedness and corruption comes from his doing. This may be disturbing to some, however it makes one have an open mind towards religion. However, I found the book rather confusing at times. Pullman COULD have made things a little clearer, and not skip around the plot. BAH! At the begining I thought Lord Asriel was the 'bad' guy and so were the witches, then my opinion got thrown around several times like food in the stomach when on a ship.
Rating: 
Summary: Different than the first, but good
Review: A lot of readers seem to be upset because Lyra takes the backseat in this novel to Will, a new character from a world like our own. While I did find some of Lyra's actions to be atypical of the feisty, brave girl that we met in The Golden Compass, I understand that Pullman had to introduce the character of Will to continue to flesh out the Paradise Lost parallels, and to give Lyra someone to journey with. There is a lot of death in this and the third book, and a lot of religious themes that some might find offensive or confusing (though one must remember that this is a novel, not an editorial or non-fiction piece; it is fake). I like Will and still love Lyra. I found this to be the weakest of the trilogy, but a must read to fully appreciate the series.
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Summary: underwhelming sequel
Review: The Subtle Knife is book two in Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series. It was a major disappointment for me. The Golden Compass was a half-decent novel. It kept me spellbound (if suspicious) for the length of the book. Not so here. First of all, it starts off on a new thread to the story--that of Will. Will's a nice enough kid. He loves his mother, longs to see his dad, and is able to hold up pretty well when confronted by some X-files-ish dark agents. But Will's not the problem with the book. Neither are the witches. If Pullman had thrown us a bone with the witches, and made them less peripheral in at least one of the three books, maybe that would have been something. But nope, not enough witches. However...the main problem is not the witches either. It is a combination of four things: -Too much Lyra. Is she a hero, a fool, a ceaseless whiner, or a brat? At the end of this book I could answer yes to three of these things. Guess which one didn't make my list? (The Alethiometer will not tell you). -No plot cohesion. Reading this book felt like watching an episode of Barry Levinson's old TV show Homicide--way two much swirling on the handheld. -Impending inanity. I won't go into Pullman's misguided one-sidedness and lack of vision--but the more he lays out his politically correct ideals and quibbles with the worst that has been man-made religion, the less story this story becomes. It becomes a sermon--and sermons aren't for reading. -Iorek Byrnison. Pullman made me love this guy in book one. Then he almost completely drops him in book two. The one redeeming scene in this book (that almost makes the story worth it) is the final scene with Lee Scoresby. Here Pullman shows just how much potential he is squandering on the weaker parts of this book and its horrid successor. Even with this one great scene, I do not recommend the Subtle Knife.
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Summary: The Subtle Knife
Review: The Subtle Knife
By Philip Pullman
9-20-02 In The Subtle Knife there is a girl named Lyra who goes into a different world. She is looking for a special particle that a lot of people in her world hate. When Lyra goes into the New World, she meets a boy named Will. They meet in a city, which is totally empty but still has supplies in it. They decide they should stick together since Will's father went north and disappeared and that's where dust, the special particle, gathers. One time, when Will and Lyra venture out into a temple, Will is granted a knife that can cut through any material and can cut a window back into Lyra's world and many others. The main characters in this book are Will and Lyra. Will is looking for his lost father and Lyra is trying to find out what dust is as well as trying to see what her father is doing with dust. There is also Lord Asriel, Lyra's father, who is starting a war between the authority and the rebellions. There is also a scholar that Lyra meets who knows about dust and shows her some of the basics about it. One of my favorite events in The Subtle Knife is when Will fights for the right to be the new bearer of the knife. I like this scene because there is a lot of action and it also tells the history of the subtle knife. Another one of my favorite parts is when Lyra meets the scholar that researches "Dark Matter" which is also Lyra's Dust. Together they discover what Dust is and what it can do. My last favorite event is when Lee Scorbesy, someone who is helping Lyra, tries to fight off about 20 soldiers to save Lyra from them. My favorite passage is when Lyra and Will enter the totally empty city for the first time. I like how the author describes the city with its harbor and the forest behind it. My favorite character is Lee Scorbesy because he is in a lot of action scenes and he is very courageous. My least favorite character is Lord Asriel because he is hard to figure out and what he is trying to do with Dust. One thing I really like about this book was the steady action. There wasn't a part that was boring; it was pretty much spread out. I also liked the storyline that was created because it was easy to understand and it wasn't boring. For this book, the reader MUST love science fiction because that is what the whole book is. The reader must also be able to realize whose on whose side. I would recommend this book to everyone that seems interested in science fiction or wants to try it out. This is a great sci-fi book and it is very important because it has deeper meanings than the words. If you would like to see if Lee Scorbesy survives his attack against 20 soldiers or what Dust exactly is, Try out The Subtle Knife!
Rating:
Summary: More than a little dissapointing...
Review: I seriously reccomend that you look through some of the negative reviews of this book before reading it. The feeling of dissapointment expressed by the negative reviews here was almost exactly the same as my own. I thoroughly enjoyed "The Golden Compass," and was sure that the sequel would satisfy the curiosity I was left with after its cliffhanger ending. Unfortunately, I was sorely dissapointed after reading this book. One thing that irked me was that Lyra, the protagonist of "The Golden Compass", seems to have been shunted aside by the new character, Will. He stepped in from nowhere, taking Lyra's place in the spotlight, and begging for the reader's sympathy through repetitive mentions of the concern he felt for his poor, mentally disturbed mother. I had no sympathy for him, however, because the author simply didn't build his character in a way that allowed me to connect with him. The only feeling I can muster for Will is pity. I also resented him for simply being the main character, and I felt like the author was betraying his readers by turning Lyra into a sidekick who has nothing more to contribute to the story than her ability to read the alethiometer. I may be mistaken, but it seems that Lyra has become more immature since "The Golden Compass", and quite dim-witted as well (.....this is not the Lyra I know!). Even the beautiful relationship between Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon seems to have dwindled, or at least been forgotten by the author. Another annoyance was the confusing storyline. The story shifts between worlds, times, and characters, so that I rarely knew what was going on. Finally, too many characters die in this story, and it almost seems like the author is eager to break off as many "loose ends" as possible. I won't reveal who dies, but the final chapters of this book reveal two very, VERY disconcerting deaths. I was totally shocked and upset, but not in a good way that strengthens the emotional impact of the book. It was just...dissapointing. All in all, I wasn't impressed by "The Subtle Knife". It has served its purpose, though, and left me with enough curiosity to continue reading "The Amber Spyglass". I can only hope the series recovers with its last installment.
Rating:
Summary: Suspense, Adventure, Cliffhangers Abound
Review: This sequel to The Golden Compass was filled with a ton of suspense that just kept me reading and reading. With each turn of the pages I came across a new plot twist that was unexpected, making this a worthwhile read.
In this book the character Will is introduced who produces new thoughts and actions in Lyra. The two are not necessarily the absolute main focus of the book, making this a book that readers will bask in the complexity and enjoy it.
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Summary: The crash of matter and the wrack of worlds
Review: Lyra Belacqua, having passed from her universe into a different one at the end of "The Golden Compass," finds her new world a strange and and dangerous place. She meets Will Parry, a boy from our own world, who is fleeing the scene of a murder, and has stumbled into the same alternate world as Lyra. Back in Lyra's world, her friends Serafina Pekkala the witch queen, and Lee Scoresby the Texan aeronaut seek her, and as do both old and new enemies of great power. Lyra finds that her father, Lord Asriel, has embarked on a project so ambitious, so stunning in its audacity that it challenges the foundations of the universe, and the place of humans in it. A number of reader reviews on Amazon seem to conclude that the second volume in this series is weaker than the first. I don't agree. This is a rather different book, that takes off in directions readers of its predecessor may not expect, but it's just as fun to read, and is as fully realized a novel. I wonder whether a lot of readers don't fall in love with Lyra in "The Golden Compass", and expect the next book to be all about her as well. It's not. Lyra is a major character, but Pullman has other fish to fry as well. There's also no well-defined quest to rivet the reader's attention until about halfway through. But when the reader finally realizes what the 'quest' is, it will take his breath away. Pullman draws freely from the some of deepest wells in English literature: Milton's "Paradise Lost", Blake's "Marriage of Heaven and Hell", and Coleridge's "The Ancient Mariner". There are echoes and resonances of these works throughout "The Subtle Knife." The novel certainly does not fall down because it's too talky: there's a ton of good action, and a lot of hair-raising, can't-put-the-book-down moments. But there are also a lot of mysteries, mysteries that probe deeply and unflinchingly into the purpose of human life on earth, where we came from, where we're going, and that explore and play with the core mythologies of Christian faith. I thought when reading the first novel in this series that although it is usually described as fantasy, it was actually closer to science fiction, and this volume confirms that idea. Pullman's is a rational universe, even when he's talking about God, angels, and Satan's war against Heaven. The prose, as in The Golden Compass, is perfect. The plot is an intricate clockwork machine. The characters are strongly limned and memorable. By the novel's conclusion Pullman has set himself up an enormous challenge for the final volume in this series. I only hope he can pull it off.
Rating: 
Summary: Dark Materials trilogy spins out of control...
Review: Philip Pullman's Dark Materials trilogy starts out so well in the first book (The Golden Compass) but goes off in confusing tangents in the second (The Subtle Knife). And I think that if an adult reader such as myself found it confusing I fear that its target audience (young teens) will be completely turned off (..or maybe they'll actually understand it all?!?). In The Subtle Knife, which closely follows the first book (which is a prerequisite), we are now entertained by frequent bouncing between different worlds. Not space travel, but sliding through different representations of the world as we know it. As in The Golden Compass we have our heroine Lyra, her world of daemons and witches, and a new hero (a young boy) who wields "the subtle knife" (quite literally a knife, but some knife! :-)). Yes, there are very good scenes and lots of action. But I found the story gets too convoluted after a while; Mr Pullman seems to be too self-obsessed in talking about his many worlds while leaving this reader's interest in the wake. Bottom line: probably mandatory reading for fans of The Golden Compass. But I fear most will be vaguely disappointed.
Rating:
Summary: nicks review
Review: Exelent book better then the first(and thats saying somthing)Must read if i could id pay you to read this exelent adventurus book.
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