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Title: The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, Book 2) by Philip Pullman ISBN: 0-345-41336-9 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 28 March, 1998 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.57 (509 reviews)
Rating: 5
Summary: Witches and daemons and specters, oh my!
Comment: *sigh* It's just so darn good. So well written. So unaccountably flawless that you want to take Philip Pullman by the lapels and demand that he show you how he did it.
In this second book of the "His Dark Materials" trilogy, Pullman deftly continues the story of Lyra Belacqua and her adventures. Added to the mix is young Will Parry. A boy from our world, he and Lyra pair up to find his father. Along the way they find new enemies (like the soul-sucking Specters) and allies (angels, as luck would have it).
What makes Pullman so adept is his readiness to shift between a myriad of different worlds with relative ease. This author can have five different plots going on and the reader not only is able to keep track of them all, but also feels a great obligation to read every single one. The creation of the Specters in this book is a particularly interesting one. Similar, in some ways, to the Dementors of the Harry Potter stories, these creatures leave the body alive and wasted after doing their dirty work.
But best of all is Mr. Pullman's ability to make you really care about what is happening. I've rarely felt so invested in the well-being of my protagonists. Lyra is smart and clever without becoming precocious. Will is serious and strong without bowling you over with his manliness. The result is a classic book that will be well regarded for years to come.
Rating: 4
Summary: Great follow-up
Comment: The Subtle Knife is a little slow to really get going but peservere and the story really takes off. Will, like Lyra, is believable and likeable, and the two make a great pair as they travel between worlds and try to make sense of what is going on. Once again, Pullman's imagination is on top form, with lots of spooky Spectres, the Subtle Knife itself and more of the horrid Mrs. Coulter. The only let-down is the "Adam & Eve" element and the explinations about Dust and dark matter.
Rating: 5
Summary: Subtle, incisive fantasy
Comment: This second volume in Pullman's epic trilogy is closer in tone to JRR Tolkien than JK Rowling, but religion and philosophy take center stage early on. This battle of Good versus Evil has Pullman update Milton and Blake by questioning a LOT of assumptions.
With the Catholic Church scandal revealing painful new developments every day, Pullman's work becomes ever more timely. Are institutions created to teach morality capable of staying moral? Can moral authorities resist authoritarianism? Which is more important, the integrity of the institution or protecting our most vulnerable citizens? All these issues come to fore, and in _The Subtle Knife_, the question of whether religion elevates or crushes the soul is never far from one's mind.
The previous novel introduced Lyra Silvertongue, who lived in an alternate Oxford (UK) where everyone has a animal-daemon who stays close at hand. This volume introduces Will Parry, from our own Oxford, dealing with his incompetent mother and the disappearance of his explorer father. Will travels to a dangerous Mediterranean world where soul-sucking wraiths only kill adults, meets Lyra, and the two join forces. When Will discovers the Subtle Knife's power to cut portals between worlds, he and Lyra learn this is not only a method of escape, but an unstable force that could destroy many worlds.
Pullman clearly detests the evil done in the name of religion. He is not necessarily anti-Catholic or anti-Christian but anti-authoritarian. Anyone who has studied European history will recognize the characterization of a corrupt and overly powerful Church (denomination never specified). Lyra and Will are bringing The Enlightenment to several worlds who are as politically forward as pre-Reformation Europe, and must defeat powerful forces who have no interest in yielding. The book and its companion volumes work both as a springboard to the Big Questions and as an allegory for growing up and finding one's own way.
Literate, informed, evocative, and conceptually brilliant, this supposed Young Adult release will captivate adults as well.
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Title: The Golden Compass (His Dark Materials, Book 1) by Philip Pullman ISBN: 0345413350 Publisher: Del Rey Pub. Date: 30 March, 1997 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Lyra's Oxford by Philip Pullman ISBN: 0375828192 Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers Pub. Date: 28 October, 2003 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
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Title: The Ruby in the Smoke (Sally Lockhart Trilogy, Book 1) by Philip Pullman ISBN: 0394895894 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 12 November, 1988 List Price(USD): $5.50 |
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Title: The Tiger in the Well (Sally Lockhart Trilogy, Book 3) by Philip Pullman ISBN: 0679826718 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 18 February, 1992 List Price(USD): $5.50 |
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Title: The Shadow in the North (Sally Lockhart Trilogy, Book 2) by Philip Pullman ISBN: 0394825993 Publisher: Laure Leaf Pub. Date: 23 September, 1989 List Price(USD): $5.99 |
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