Rating: 
Summary: Something of a disappointment after Book 1
Review: This is certainly a solid four-star book, and approaches five stars in many ways. It is only disappointing for two reasons: beacuse it comes after a nearly perfect book, and because it is so ambitious that it sets itself up for failure. Pullman is very skilled, but he is even more ambitious. If the second two books in this series were about anything else, they would seem truly great, but in order to deal with universe-shaking topics, one needs to be a writer of universe-shaking skill, and few, if any, authors have that.Although I am somewhat disappointed by The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass, I applaud Pullman for being brave enough to attempt them. He isn't completely successful, but what writer would be? Has ANY writer ever done this successfully? Someday I will read Paradise Lost, Pullman's inspiration, to see if even it lived up to its subject matter.
Rating: 
Summary: Wonderful Sequel
Review: This book was as good as the first one. I've found out that they're shelving these books in the adult science fiction section as well as the children's section, which at first seemed wrong, but they are fairly dark and a little graphic with the violence. Nevertheless I have thourougly enjoyed these books. This is the continuing story of Lyra who travels to another world and meets a boy named Will who is looking for his father. It follows their adventures and I personally enjoy this series because of what their war is about. But anyhoo. Go read them.
Rating:
Summary: The Subtle Knife or The STRONG Knife!
Review: At school I won a prize for book tokens. I spent a long time deciding but i chose The Northern Lights and read it. Superb. I went immediately back to the shop after i'd finished it and bought the Subtle Knife. Reading it was great. The twist when when Will cut his fingers gave me the creeps because 1 month later I did the same! Overall cool book! At Christmas i got The Amber Spyglass the 3rd in the series. Bye y'all! Da fraz man
Rating:
Summary: A subtle book indeed
Review: I started reading The Subtle Knife when I got curious about why so many people at school had the book for their book project. I thought, "Why is this book so interesting? I must find out myself." Then, I went to a bookstore to buy the book, I had some trouble because the hardcover was so expensive. Therefore, I bought the paperback version. Even before I decided to buy the book, I had a teacher recommend The Sublte knife to me in 6th grade, but I thought I wasn't ready to read such a difficult book, yet.
The main character of the book is Will Parry, a fourteen year old boy who is trying to find his father who disappeared twelve years ago on an expidition to the arctic. Ever since then, his mother and himself have to hide from enemies that are trying to steal his father's letters before he disappeared. Finally, after many years of evading these strange enemies, Will is forced to leave his mother in someone else's care because of her sickness and ventures out on his own. While traveling, he finds a strange portal in Oxford and enters the city of Cittagazze, haunted by soul eating ghost like forms called specters. He meets Lyra Silvertongue, a mysterious girl who comes from a different realm. Both go on an exciting adventure full of witches, sorcery, and discovery.
So far, the book is great! The story deeply explores each individual's feelings and emotions with great depth. Every sentence is either describing Lyra or Will's feelings or telling the story. As the story goes on, the plot pulls the reader deeper and deeper into the action. When Will and Lyra were fighting for their lives at the Tower of the Angles, I was cheering along with the book. The struggle for control was heart pounding. I love Phillip Pullman's descriptions and imagination with all the deatils and complexity. I enjoyed reading Phillip Pullman's books and am looking forward to finding out what dust is and what comes of poor will in the end of the series.
Rating:
Summary: An eleven year-old reader from New York
Review: The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman, is a novel about a girl named Lyra and a boy named Will. Will's mother is very sick and he has just murdered a man. When Will discovers a little hole near some trees, he decides to go through it. He discovers a whole new world that he is safe. An amazing, fascinating book. Impossible to put down! A must-read!
Rating:
Summary: Immensely complex, imaginative and DARK story
Review: This is the second installment of Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" trilogy. First of all, I have to warn you that this is no ordinary children's book. If your idea of children's fantasy is Harry Potter (no offence), this book sits at far end of your bookshelf. This is immensely complex, imaginative and most of all DARK story. In this volume, you meet another leading character, a young boy Will. Will, -like Lyla, but in a different way, is an unlikely character. His father is an explorer who went missing years ago and his mother is mentally ill. He unwittingly commits murder and he is on a run. He is very serious and very uptight. I doubt if this boy ever smiles in this book. The story that started in another world moves to our world and they collide with another. Number of new characters appear and some steps out. Number of readers rated this book very negatively. I believe that is partly because of somewhat mature content (violence, emotion, complexity, etc.), but most of all, due to the story's anti-church authority, if not anti-Christ underlying theme. I was not least bothered by it. In fact I think the trilogy will live to stand with classics such as Narnia and Rings. They why didn't I give 5 stars? Well, it is because of the leading character, Lyla . For the same reasons what makes this book unusual, she is a character you love to hate.
Rating:
Summary: Review for "The Subtle Knife"
Review: An adventurous tale by Phillip Pullman. Once you start reading you won't be able to put it down. It's full of mystery, terror, adventure, and much more! "The Subtle Knife" is even more interesting than "The Golden Compass" and I gaurantee that you'll want to read it more than once. A religious battle is about to take place and Lyra is in search of it. Her plans change, though, after meeting Will. A young boy in search of his father, who left him when he was just an infant. Together Lyra and Will face danger and surprise as they try to fullfill their mission. However, their journey suddenly takes a wrong turn and............ The rest you'll have to read.
Rating:
Summary: a great series start with a very disappointing end
Review: This series starts off to be one of the most memorable and imaginative fantasies of the last fifty years. Better than Tolkien in places. As detailed as Gormenghast but easier to read. An intellectual Harry Potter. It's clever, beautiful, mystical, fantastic with truely terrifying villians. A children's classic, which adults can appreciate, or so one would suppose, if they only read this far. The "Golden Compass" is a sort of technological Tarot. There are talking polar bear in armour. There are witches who can astral project at will. The "Subtle Knife" can cut through layers of various concentric multi-verse worlds of which ours is only one. It allows Lyra and Friends to go from one world to another and escape a villian who wants to cut open her skull for kicks (Trepanning?), and her mother who want to use surgery to serperate her from her alter ego "Daemon" and liberate their combined energy for a science experiment. The series is still great in this book. I eagerly awaited the last book which was delayed for a year or more. "The Subtle Knife" builds us up to the biggest fantasy disappointment of all time, the third book, the "Amber Spyglass". Like a huge wave that you great surfboard ride and then crashes you down on the rocky beach. The bad guy is God. You know, Jehovah, of the Judeo Christian tradition. Or perhaps the archangel Metatron, his mouthpiece. Other bad guys: parents, organized religion. Science. Good guys in "Amber" include... well, read for yourself. Because the book make no sense without the finale, and the finale is so dreadful, I can't recommend anyone go farther than this and the previous book in the series. Perhaps the best fantasy start of all time. I guess Knopf bought the series based on the strength of the first two books.
Rating:
Summary: Another winner in the series
Review: This, the second of Pullman's Dark Materials Trilogy, brings the story to a whole new level. It introduces moral and philosophical questions that some might imagine to be too weighty for young readers, and it introduces a second hero, a boy named Will. (well at least that should keep the feminists quiet! - they had a ball with the first book of the series, The Golden Compass). Though introducing Will takes a deal of the focus off Lyra, she did, after all, have the first book more or less to herself, and it is clear now that the trilogy is meant to involve them both. Fortunately, Will Parry is every bit as likeable as Lyra Silvertongue. The Subtle Knife is one of the most amazing, mind grasping fantasies ever to be written. It takes you into places so real you feel like you are part of them. Throughout, Pullman is in absolute control of his created worlds, his plot and pace equal to his inspiration. Any number of astonishing scenes send readers into spontaneous reality checks, and many are cause for eye-dabbing moments - even from the men. "You think things have to be possible," Will demands. "Things have to be true!" It is Philip Pullman's gift to turn what more mundane minds would term 'the impossible' into reality - one that is both heartbreaking and beautiful. Pullman's exquisite touch at building his characters, takes on special significance as he creates both human and spectral forms from many different worlds. His real strength, though, is in his light-fingered touch on subjects as 'adult' as mental illness, man's inhumanity to man, and the possibility of other universes. His writing may be viewed as pure entertainment, yet the concepts he delves into are as profound as any. But here's the REAL intellect of Pullman... he's not afraid to (over)extend many of the commonly-held views about foreshadowing by revealing some of the more astounding theories early in the book. When he permits Dust to escape into our world, you realize just how well you've been set-up, and the true genius of this series starts to show.
Rating: 
Summary: not as good
Review: this book was not as good as the first one yet i still enjoyed. the reson i thought it was not as good is because i found some parts confusing they way it jumps back for diffrent chactres. however it was still thrilling like the golden compass.
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