The Subtle Knife

Will is twelve years old and he's just killed a man. Now he's on his own, on the run, determined to discover the truth about his father's disappearance. Then Will steps through a window in the air into another world, and finds himself with a companion-a strange, savage little girl called Lyra. Like Will, she has a mission which she intends to carry out all costs. But the world of Cittagazze is a strange and unsettling place. Deadly, soul-eating Spectres stalk its streets, while high above, the wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky. And in the mysterious Torre degli Angeli lurks Cittagazze's most important secret-an object which people from many worlds would kill to possess...

This review may contain spoilers for Northern Lights.

The end of Northern Lights finished with Lyra heading off 'beyond the Northern Lights' to explore other worlds and to discover for herself what exactly 'dust' is. The Subtle Knife, rather than pick up directly up from its predecessor instead opens in 'our' world, the Earth that the reader recognises as normal and introduces a new lead character; Will. However, when Will commits an accidental murder he finds that he can hide through a strange rip in the air, in an apparently abandoned world named Cittagazze, where he meets Lyra, and then the plot really kicks off.

I think I probably enjoyed this more than Northern Lights, probably because it was a lot more pacey. There was less need to really set up the two worlds; the reader is obviously familiar with how the contemporary world works and once the Spectres are explained the world of Cittagazze is pretty easy to understand as well. Indeed, the novel focuses on Will becoming the bearer of the mysterious subtle knife, what said knife does and then preventing it from falling into the hands of Mrs Coulter (shudder). Running on a second parallel is the story of the Texan aeronaut Lee Scoresby trying to track down the explorer Grumman in the hope that it will help Lyra.

As a new character, Will is interesting. He's just as brave as Lyra; having faced tough times at home with a mother who is suffering from mental illness and he is fiercely loyal. At the same time, he's not all 'good'; many of the other characters are fearful of him, and really he reminded me a little of the ambiguity surrounding Lord Asriel. The other characters that move over from Northern Lights remain the same; although Lyra's self-centered quest is put on hold when she meets, and is fascinated by, Will. It was nice to see more of Scoresby and the character of Grumman was also really interesting (although it's hard to talk about him without there being epic spoilers for the novel).

One thing I would say is that if you found Northern Lights too 'anti-religion/God' then you should probably not read The Subtle Knife. I found the message in Northern Lights to be quite subtle until the last pages, yet in this novel it becomes more clear-Asriel wants to destroy Dust/original sin, and his way of doing this is by launching an attack on Authority (God), in a war unprecedented for thousands of years. There is also further revelation surrounding who Lyra is in the legends of certain parts of her world-primarily among the witches, which also hints at a fresh Genesis, a new beginning. My only problem with the novel was that these ideas all seemed to come out of the left field right near the end and left me being a little bit confused during the final pages.

However, The Subtle Knife is certainly a great continuation of a really bold and fascinating young adult series and sets up the final novel The Amber Spyglass brilliantly.