"She had asked: What is he? A friend or an enemy?
The alethiometer answered: He is a murderer.
When she saw the answer, she relaxed at once.
The alethiometer answered: He is a murderer.
When she saw the answer, she relaxed at once.
Lyra finds herself in a shimmering, haunted otherworld – Cittàgazze, where soul-eating Spectres stalk the streets and wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky.
But she is not without allies: twelve-year-old Will Parry, fleeing for his life after taking another's, has also stumbled into this strange new realm.
On a perilous journey from world to world, Lyra and Will uncover a deadly secret: an object of extraordinary and devastating power.
And with every step, they move closer to an even greater threat – and the shattering truth of their own destiny."
Hope everyone is staying sane in quarantine. I am really missing the library, but on the positive side I am really ploughing through my to-read pile.
I am the first person in my family to make it past the first book in this series. Both of my parents started this one but couldn't make it through. I can totally see why.
The first book of this trilogy is, personally, wonderful. A rich world, emotive story telling and a fast moving plot. In The Golden Compass, we were treated to a rich alternate universe that had elements that were similar to our own, like some of the geopolitical structure, and elements that were entirely fantastical, like armoured polar bears and witches. (so cool) The Subtle Knife, however decides that most of this is insignificant and takes place almost entirely in a different, and mostly un - fleshed out, universe. It seems like Philip Pullman wanted to reel us in with high fantasy before he could preach at us. It defiantly felt like a book that's sole purpose was to set up for the final third, mainly filler and exposition.
The second protagonist of the series Will, the Adam to Pullman’s Eve, takes the lead here. Initially I was, and to be honest I still am, very resistant to this idea. I had grown to respect Lyra; she’s a really strong heroine. Will is a giant "young adult fiction" stereotype, in search of the father he never knew while protecting his mother from bad guys and seems to be gifted in the combat department while being unrealistically stoic for his age. But after a while it kind of started to make sense. Pullman has expanded his story considerably. Lyra has three chapters told from her perspective. The same amount, roughly speaking, is told from the perspective of Will. The rest of the chapters are from side characters of the previous book. So there’s a strong move away from a Lyra centred story. While I understand this desicion from a structural perspective, it really dilluted the emotional connection to the charcters, I found myself no longer invested at all.
At times this felt like an entirely different series altogether. There is no sense of closure at the end of this. The first book had a strong ending, but this has very little, more like a fade screen. This book seemed to be a mere set-up for the next instalment, which makes it rather difficult to review; it’s like picking out the middle bit of a story and trying to criticise it as a separate entity from the rest of it: it’s not easy to do. Any criticism you make are negated by the fact that this is not a separate book: it’s a chunk of a greater work.
The plot was also quite faulty. Things just kind of happened with very little motivation or thought out plan. It felt almost episodic.
Something I wasn't expecting was the religious/ spiritual element that was added. It was hinted at in the Golden Compass, but I wasn't expecting it to become so overt. I really, really love the dissection and rethinking of religion in fantasy. Anything that discusses religion in a new way has got me and I think these books had great potential. There could be a lot to discuss with adolescents (not young children...at all). The nature of the soul, the natural man, organized religion, the costs and benefits of religions and the danger of absolute control. All appropriate things to discuss with younger children. But unfortunately Pullman takes that conversation away with his lack of metaphor. It becomes impossible to argue, "I think the dust means this." or "what do you think The Authority is for Pullman?" when he throws his opinion at you with real life Christian beliefs and makes it so in your face.
It's not so much that the book is horribly bad, per se, though I do think it becomes too dark for the age group I initially thought it was written for. The plot was glitchy and the writing sub par. Okay so maybe it was bad.
Age Rating 14+. Depections of mental illness, quite brutal violence and graphic wound description.
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