The Subtle Knife: His Dark Materials (Paperback)

I have all the Harry Potter books, and my friend recommended Northern Lights to me because she said it was like a girl power equivalent to Harry Potter. I thought that sounded pretty cool, so I gave it a go. I realised that it is nothing like Harry Potter at all! Harry Potter is a *normal* boy in *our* world doing *normal* stuff with a twist of magic. The "His Dark Materials" trilogy is set mainly in *fantasy* worlds, but I suppose that you could say Lyra is kind of normal. Apart from the fact that she has a little Daemon called Pantalaimon. In fact, to her a daemon is normal - apparently seeing somebody without a daemon is like seeing somebody without a head - that's the kind of thing that makes this trilogy good.

This particular book is better than Northern Lights, in my opinion. There's a boy and a girl (Lyra and Will). They both come from different worlds - but they're kind of like parallel universes - there is an Oxford in Lyra's world, but it has certain features that are different, such as the aforementioned daemons and a certain Jordan College, which is not at the *real* Oxford Uni. Then there's ANOTHER world which is totally different. Things called spectres haunt and drown the souls of the adults, but the kids are unaffected. How creepy? And you can hear angels - and there are witches... It's all very creepy, which is v. cool.

I would recommend this to anybody who enjoyed Harry Potter, but thinks they are growing out of him. There are some really clever twists, and it deals with emotions and tragedy a lot more than Harry Potter does. I don't know why Philip Pullman isn't getting the coverage that J. K. Rowling is. In my opinion he's a much much better writer. It amazes me how he can know exactly how a little girl actually feels - and the books are so imaginative, you'd think he comes from Lyra's world!

And one more thing - look out for some seriously wicked names - Lyra Belacqua (or Silvertongue as she has now been christened) is a lot more exciting than Harry Potter, or Cornelius Fudge.

Ok, I hope you read it, cos I can't begin to tell you how good it is - you really need to see it to believe it!

The story was undoubtedly darker and more heart wrenching than the first in the series with dramatic, sinister and charming plots throughout. The novel is a finely choreographed piece that conjoins the fairy-tale simplicity of the first book with what I can only hope is the climactic tussle of good against evil in the third. And it does it with beautiful style as the stakes clearly rise at every juncture and each nail-biting twist unfolds with enthralling literary genius.

The characters in unsurprising similarity with the first novel continue to develop and the warmth of the love between the main characters is almost tangible. Conversely, as the book progresses, your determination to defeat the evilness of Mrs Coulter, the spectres, Sir Charles and "the authority" grows, as Lyra's and Will's does, with every page turned. A few characters in the novel one could almost predict would be living under a pseudonym, although I had such lack of foresight that I incorrectly guessing two of them: thus leading to a remarkably loud jangling when the penny finally dropped. The book's orchestration is perfectly poised and its path is intricately and precisely weaved into a flawless narration combining sharp, fast-moving action with delicately subtle commentary.

Underpinning the trilogy is the far reaching conflict between the authority, centralised around the church of the Magisterium and its main protagonist, Mrs Coulter; and the free world, embodied by Lyra with her Truth device, Will with his knife and the industriously energetic Lord Asriel who exists only in name in this book. The book contrasts Lyra's universe which is run by a clerical bureaucracy dominated by the church and the nonchalant, free 20th century reminiscent of our own. But both are nicely interplayed with a third world that exemplifies the effect of turning a formerly paradisiacal interpretation of existence into a living misery. And the effect of the intertwined worlds is as splendid as its meticulous description is perfect.

The courage, bravery and determination of Lyra and Will even in the face of seemingly daunting tasks reflects the ultimate achievement that so many people desire. Pullman gives the characters a reality in an almost science fiction setting that transcends the likely age of its readers. As such, the book will find popularity with readers of all generations hoping for either youthful inspiration or mature wishfulness. The interactions of the adult characters give a complexity to the sub-plots that one almost feels that Pullman is attempting to nurture and educate children by transposing quests they face in day-to-day activities into the book. And it does it extremely well. The beleaguered aeronaut searching for his saviour, Will's battle for the knife, Lyra's fighting conscience between lying and truthfulness are all examples of this.

The end is a wholly unsatisfactory series of cliff-hangers that at the time of release must have driven Pullman fans wild with annoyance at not being able to continue the journey of Lyra and Will. I, on the other hand, had the luxury of putting The Subtle Knife back in the box and pulling out the next in the trilogy. The final chapter of The Subtle Knife leaves so many brilliantly poised story lines open that you will be running to the bookstore, or Amazon, I suppose, for the next instalment.

Spellbinding, fulfilling, rewarding and entertaining.