The Subtle Knife is the second part of the trilogy that began with The Golden Compass. That first book was set in a world like ours, but different. This book begins in our own world.
The Subtle Knife begins in our own world, where Will Parry, driven by curiosity about his mysterious, missing father and concern for his vulnerable, disturbed mother, accidentally kills an intruder. While fleeing, he finds a "window" into a sunlit otherworld. What could be a better refuge than a hidden universe? But this universe is a strange, empty place: a city that seems to have been abandoned in such haste that food is left rotting on plates at a sidewalk cafe. The inhabitants of the city, Cittàgazze, have fled from the invading Spectres, ghostlike creatures that devour the souls of adults. But Spectres are harmless and invisible to children, and soon Will meets another fugitive child in Cittàgazze: Lyra. Although he does not know it, their lives are soon to become forever intertwined when Lyra's alethiometer gives her one simple command: Help Will find his father.
Philip Pullman gives his readers precisely the satisfactions they look for in a novel: well-made, absorbing characters, supreme elegance of style and tone, a richly inventive imaginative landscape, and, some very big ideas fearlessly explored. His style of writing is descriptive and imaginative.
The themes used in “The Subtle Knife” are betrayal, when Will leaves his mother and runs away from his own world to escape the police, he betrays his mother, Good vs. Evil, the trilogy challenges our assumptions about good and evil: some witches are good, while some members of the church are evil. Other themes used in the novel are Courage, when Lyra and Will leave their daemons behind in the world of dead to rescue Roger and the other spirits, fear, when Will and Lyra fear that they will lose each other, trust, the trust that develops between Lyra and Will and the rest of Lyra’s friends and love, between Lyra and Will.
There are eight new characters in the Subtle Knife; Will Parry, the bearer of the Knife, Mrs Cooper, an elderly woman whom Will entrusts to care for his mentally fragile mother until he can return home again, Stanislaus Grumman, a renowned explorer immersed in investigating Dust. He is rumoured to be a shaman whose tribal Tartar name is Jopari the English translation of which is John Parry. It is his duty to find the bearer of the Subtle Knife and inform him of his critical role in the fate of the universe. Sir Charles Latrom, a deceiving man who has seen Lyra work the alethiometer and realizes its value. Known as Lord Boreal in Lyra's world, he has ties with Mrs. Coulter, Lyra's mother. Dr. Mary Malone, a member of the Dark Matter Research Unit, who has discovered the existence of shadows, Giacomo Paradisi, previous bearer of the Subtle Knife, he teaches Will the differences between and uses for the blade's edges, John Parry, Will's father who vanished long ago before Will was able to remember him and Ruta Skadi: Queen of the Latvian witches.
I think there is no target audience for this novel because I believe it is something that can be read by all age groups.
In conclusion I found the novel “ The Subtle Knife” by Philip Pullman very interesting and enjoyable. I liked it because of Philip Pullman’s use of imagination and the idea of many different world in one world and the use of imaginative vocabulary such as ‘daemon’ and ‘alethiometer’.
Out of ten I would rate “The Subtle Knife” a ten because I enjoyed reading it and I like the way Philip Pullman has constructed different worlds that are travelled through with one extraordinary knife that would cut through anything. I would not only recommend it to people my age but to everybody interested in adventure or fantasy stories.
By Hatice Giritli
Group 9
