304 pages
English language
Published Sept. 9, 2003 by Laurel Leaf.
As the boundaries between worlds begin to dissolve, Lyra and her daemon help Will Parry in his search for his father and for a powerful, magical knife.
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.
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.
A continuation of Lyra's journey.
Felt this one was a bit weaker than the first. Not nearly as engaging, though still does a wonderful job of building out its multiple worlds. It's nice to see certain plot strands and characters from the first get some closure / expansion here. Curious to see how it all ends.
On to the third!
Un bel seguito, anche se spero che il seguito sia avventuroso come questo.
Spero che non finisca con il vincitore prende tutto.
не для мого віку…
This was not at all what I was expecting from a sequel to The Golden Compass. The end of the first book in the trilogy pulls the rug out from under the reader, revealing that Lyra’s father is just as dangerous as her mother, if only with different methods and conflicting alliances.
The second book resets the playing field when we meet Will Parry, who comes from a world much like our own and who lives in modern times, not the early part of the Twentieth Century like you might imagine from Lyra’s version of Oxford.
The Subtle Knife is deeper and weirder, and much more disturbing than the first book. Lyra and Will discover a third world that serves as a way station between their respective worlds, but it has fallen into disrepair and been overrun with invisible specters who can suck the life out of an adult in …
This was not at all what I was expecting from a sequel to The Golden Compass. The end of the first book in the trilogy pulls the rug out from under the reader, revealing that Lyra’s father is just as dangerous as her mother, if only with different methods and conflicting alliances.
The second book resets the playing field when we meet Will Parry, who comes from a world much like our own and who lives in modern times, not the early part of the Twentieth Century like you might imagine from Lyra’s version of Oxford.
The Subtle Knife is deeper and weirder, and much more disturbing than the first book. Lyra and Will discover a third world that serves as a way station between their respective worlds, but it has fallen into disrepair and been overrun with invisible specters who can suck the life out of an adult in seconds.
Will has to make some hard choices, and they encounter new and more terrifying dangers. We also start to get glimpses of Lord Asriel’s grand plan, and it is unclear what to root for other than Lyra and Will living to fight another day.
The book ends on a cliffhanger that must have been maddening back when it was first published. On to the final book in the trilogy!
Ratchets up tension but the multiple focalization stands in the way of full immersion.
Mr. Pullman, with these books, has laid the entirety of mankind's woes at the feet of the notion of God and those people who use God to subdue and control other men. For all that, the story is well told, and I'm interested to see where it goes.
I didn't know how the trilogy's purported anti-Christian message would work, since a divinity clearly exists in this universe, but I get it now. On to book three (I still don't like Lyra, or Will, though)
This series is definitely dark. There are a lot of dark themes weaved into the plot which twists and turns unrelentingly. I can see how the book is unsettling to some people, much more than The Golden Compass. I'm sure my imagination is only scratching the surface of where the next book will end up.
The sequel to Golden Compass is not as immediately engaging as the first of the series, I think perhaps because it begins in a world that we already know. But as the mesh of different worlds begins to occur, we are plunged back into the wonderful fantasy world of the first book. However, I still didn't feel the same wonder that I felt with the first book, which may be because now the overarching plot seemed to be overtaking the flow of the narrative.
That said, however, still thoroughly enjoyable, and am looking forward to finishing the series.
