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aghawkins99's review against another edition
5.0
Another capturing novel in this series and I just loved the story. I kept wanting more and really didn’t stop listening as much as I could help it.
mynameismarines's review against another edition
4.0
[May 21, 2019]
Reading my original review from seven years ago is wild. I came back to this story and found something completely different here; I found myself completely different. There are still quibbles-- yes, some of the messaging is heavy handed and yes, Pullman's story style and world building is just slow-- but I was so focused on what this story wasn't that I couldn't appreciate what it was.
I'll have full thoughts after we cover this on Snark Squad Pod, but for now, I'll say that I'm bumping this up to a 4.5 stars.
[October 25, 2012]
3 stars
This was hard.
I think I should mention a couple of things: I'm reading HDM for the first time as an adult. I really, very much enjoyed The Golden Compass. I come from a religious background, which makes me sympathetic to the faults of organized religion, but I also still firmly believe in God. I started reading the books not because of the "controversy" per se, but more because I have a few dear, dear friends who call this their favorite. I was only vaguely aware of certain anti-religious elements of the story.
For me, The Subtle Knife was not as good. The fact that I made it through the end is mostly a testament to my love for Lyra and Pan, and my (small)(but growing)(new) love for Will. I was interested in these characters and kept reading for a chance to know what might happen to them.
Pullman, however, made it difficult for me. It wasn't even so much about the religious metaphors per se, but more about the fact that they stopped being metaphors somewhere along the line and became hammers. Anvils. I was in the middle of a sermon before I knew what happened.
In book 2, we lose the intrigue of Lyra's world. We lose a lot of possibilities. Yes answers are good, in some cases, but here as we learn for certain what Dust is and what Asriel's mission is and what Lyra's part in it all is, you get tied down and suffocated by Pullman's big ideas which you! must! believe!
Even though I was reading about her, I missed Lyra. I missed my brave girl on grand adventures, who cried yes, but was as courageous as any armoured bear. She became something lesser in this book, and I was sorry to see it. I really, really, really missed Pan. He was so absent here, and the beautiful and intricate relationship between Lyra and Pan was mostly gone, perhaps for a reason I'll discover in book 3, but it's absence was felt here.
I missed being able to take my own interpretations and apply them to the book. Pullman abandons his clever and well thought out position of communicating his stance on the church through his fantasy world and the Magesterium. He abandons that and the head pounding begins:
"That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling. So if a war comes, and the Church is on one side of it, we must be on the other, no matter what strange allies we find ourselves bound to."
It was just all a bit too heavy handed for me and it weighed the story down, a story that already missed the high mark set in The Golden Compass.
I'll keep reading. Mostly for Lyra.
Reading my original review from seven years ago is wild. I came back to this story and found something completely different here; I found myself completely different. There are still quibbles-- yes, some of the messaging is heavy handed and yes, Pullman's story style and world building is just slow-- but I was so focused on what this story wasn't that I couldn't appreciate what it was.
I'll have full thoughts after we cover this on Snark Squad Pod, but for now, I'll say that I'm bumping this up to a 4.5 stars.
[October 25, 2012]
3 stars
This was hard.
I think I should mention a couple of things: I'm reading HDM for the first time as an adult. I really, very much enjoyed The Golden Compass. I come from a religious background, which makes me sympathetic to the faults of organized religion, but I also still firmly believe in God. I started reading the books not because of the "controversy" per se, but more because I have a few dear, dear friends who call this their favorite. I was only vaguely aware of certain anti-religious elements of the story.
For me, The Subtle Knife was not as good. The fact that I made it through the end is mostly a testament to my love for Lyra and Pan, and my (small)(but growing)(new) love for Will. I was interested in these characters and kept reading for a chance to know what might happen to them.
Pullman, however, made it difficult for me. It wasn't even so much about the religious metaphors per se, but more about the fact that they stopped being metaphors somewhere along the line and became hammers. Anvils. I was in the middle of a sermon before I knew what happened.
In book 2, we lose the intrigue of Lyra's world. We lose a lot of possibilities. Yes answers are good, in some cases, but here as we learn for certain what Dust is and what Asriel's mission is and what Lyra's part in it all is, you get tied down and suffocated by Pullman's big ideas which you! must! believe!
Even though I was reading about her, I missed Lyra. I missed my brave girl on grand adventures, who cried yes, but was as courageous as any armoured bear. She became something lesser in this book, and I was sorry to see it. I really, really, really missed Pan. He was so absent here, and the beautiful and intricate relationship between Lyra and Pan was mostly gone, perhaps for a reason I'll discover in book 3, but it's absence was felt here.
I missed being able to take my own interpretations and apply them to the book. Pullman abandons his clever and well thought out position of communicating his stance on the church through his fantasy world and the Magesterium. He abandons that and the head pounding begins:
"That is what the Church does, and every church is the same: control, destroy, obliterate every good feeling. So if a war comes, and the Church is on one side of it, we must be on the other, no matter what strange allies we find ourselves bound to."
It was just all a bit too heavy handed for me and it weighed the story down, a story that already missed the high mark set in The Golden Compass.
I'll keep reading. Mostly for Lyra.
viciousewok13's review against another edition
4.0
A little exposition heavy at times but the start of some really cool character growth for Lyra and Will is one of my favorite characters.
obsidian_blue's review against another edition
5.0
Oh how I loved thee. Let me count the ways.
Seriously though. This book was phenomenal. I know that Moonlight Reader and I cannot wait to get to the final book in this trilogy. We plan on starting the third book, The Amber Spyglass as part of our #FridayReads.
Here is my review of book one, Wonderful Beginning to His Dark Materials Trilogy. When Moonlight finishes her reviews I will add links here so you can read them. Looks like we finally got some good book mojo our way.
Spoilers for those who have not read The Golden Compass.
So after the events of the last book, where Lyra now calling herself Lyra Silvertongue has found out that her father is Lord Asriel and her mother is Mrs. Coulter. Lord Asriel has killed her best friend Roger and used that death to punch a doorway into another world. Lord Asriel has plans to take down "death" itself. Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon have decided to follow Lord Asriel and do whatever is necessary to stop him.
Seriously though. Lyra has the worst parents ever. Your heart breaks for her and you realize how brave she is in order to do what is necessary to stop Lord Asriel after her inadvertent treachery led to Lord Asriel's bigger treachery.
Now book two begins in our world.
A young boy named Will doing his best to hide his mother while he goes looking for his missing father. Some strange men keep coming to Will's house and asking for something that they think his father may have sent to them. Will manages to find a hidden opening and walks into another world and finds Lyra. Joining up, the two children realize that they need one another in order to do what the alethiometer tells Lyra she must do, which is find Will's father with him.
The character of Will won my heart. That kid had sheer bravery in the face of extreme odds. Lyra likens him to Iorek Brynison and he really is like him and also just like him gets Lyra to stop and think before she jumps in head first to take people on.
Lyra matures throughout book two. She realizes that she needs to be more careful of what she does without thinking it through because it can mean Will's death. In Lyra's head the worst thing to do would be to betray or lose him, she truly loves him and he becomes her best friend.
We have secondary characters who are no less important like Serafina Pekkala who is a straight up boss in this book. I shudder for Mrs. Coulter because Serafina is all about making sure all debts are owed in the end.
Also we get more points of view by Lee Scoresby who just like Serafina, loves Lyra for her own sake and will do what is necessary to take care of her.
I don't know if I can forgive Phillip Pullman for what happened to this character. I started crying. It was straight up heart wrenching.
We also get some new big bads in this book and the reappearance of Mrs. Coulter and her horrible golden monkey. Lord Asriel is discussed and I don't know if this is leaning towards him being a good guy or what. I am not here for Lord Asriel’s redemption. I hope Lyra sticks a knife through him. Wow I have gotten quite blood thirsty reading these books.
The writing was fantastic. I once again have to give Phillip Pullman kudos for how he incorporated religious symbols and other stories from the Bible in this book. We have a discussion of angels and of Dust and Dark Matter. I really think it was smartly done. The pacing was perfect too. I was holding my breath up until the very last pages. And the book ending on a cliffhanger gave me a momentary feeling of WTF but I quickly got over it since I now I am reading book three on Friday.
The setting of the different worlds was great. I can't wait to read more about the bearer of the knife, spectres, and daemons. I felt like I was right there with Lyra and Will and I now more than ever wish that the movies would have done the first book justice. I swear these days unless it's on t.v. people don't take their time with stories like this.
The ending like I said is quite a cliffhanger. I think it was smartly done because you do want to keep readers coming back for me. I was still frustrated because I really did want to know what happens next.
I don't know how I am going to last til Friday!
Seriously though. This book was phenomenal. I know that Moonlight Reader and I cannot wait to get to the final book in this trilogy. We plan on starting the third book, The Amber Spyglass as part of our #FridayReads.
Here is my review of book one, Wonderful Beginning to His Dark Materials Trilogy. When Moonlight finishes her reviews I will add links here so you can read them. Looks like we finally got some good book mojo our way.
Spoilers for those who have not read The Golden Compass.
So after the events of the last book, where Lyra now calling herself Lyra Silvertongue has found out that her father is Lord Asriel and her mother is Mrs. Coulter. Lord Asriel has killed her best friend Roger and used that death to punch a doorway into another world. Lord Asriel has plans to take down "death" itself. Lyra and her daemon Pantalaimon have decided to follow Lord Asriel and do whatever is necessary to stop him.
Seriously though. Lyra has the worst parents ever. Your heart breaks for her and you realize how brave she is in order to do what is necessary to stop Lord Asriel after her inadvertent treachery led to Lord Asriel's bigger treachery.
Now book two begins in our world.
A young boy named Will doing his best to hide his mother while he goes looking for his missing father. Some strange men keep coming to Will's house and asking for something that they think his father may have sent to them. Will manages to find a hidden opening and walks into another world and finds Lyra. Joining up, the two children realize that they need one another in order to do what the alethiometer tells Lyra she must do, which is find Will's father with him.
The character of Will won my heart. That kid had sheer bravery in the face of extreme odds. Lyra likens him to Iorek Brynison and he really is like him and also just like him gets Lyra to stop and think before she jumps in head first to take people on.
Lyra matures throughout book two. She realizes that she needs to be more careful of what she does without thinking it through because it can mean Will's death. In Lyra's head the worst thing to do would be to betray or lose him, she truly loves him and he becomes her best friend.
We have secondary characters who are no less important like Serafina Pekkala who is a straight up boss in this book. I shudder for Mrs. Coulter because Serafina is all about making sure all debts are owed in the end.
Also we get more points of view by Lee Scoresby who just like Serafina, loves Lyra for her own sake and will do what is necessary to take care of her.
Spoiler
I don't know if I can forgive Phillip Pullman for what happened to this character. I started crying. It was straight up heart wrenching.
We also get some new big bads in this book and the reappearance of Mrs. Coulter and her horrible golden monkey. Lord Asriel is discussed and I don't know if this is leaning towards him being a good guy or what. I am not here for Lord Asriel’s redemption. I hope Lyra sticks a knife through him. Wow I have gotten quite blood thirsty reading these books.
The writing was fantastic. I once again have to give Phillip Pullman kudos for how he incorporated religious symbols and other stories from the Bible in this book. We have a discussion of angels and of Dust and Dark Matter. I really think it was smartly done. The pacing was perfect too. I was holding my breath up until the very last pages. And the book ending on a cliffhanger gave me a momentary feeling of WTF but I quickly got over it since I now I am reading book three on Friday.
The setting of the different worlds was great. I can't wait to read more about the bearer of the knife, spectres, and daemons. I felt like I was right there with Lyra and Will and I now more than ever wish that the movies would have done the first book justice. I swear these days unless it's on t.v. people don't take their time with stories like this.
The ending like I said is quite a cliffhanger. I think it was smartly done because you do want to keep readers coming back for me. I was still frustrated because I really did want to know what happens next.
I don't know how I am going to last til Friday!
mycouscous's review against another edition
5.0
I first read this series when I was in grad school at Pitt in 2007, and I quickly realized how much I'd forgotten about the plot and characters! When I first read it, this was my favorite installment: I have a feeling that it will remain so.
trashymusic's review against another edition
adventurous
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
2.0
pixelcolejo's review against another edition
4.0
The Subtle Knife which is the second book in Philip Pullman's His Dark Material series picks up where he left off. Lyra finds herself in a strange world and meets up with a boy named Will who also is from another version of the world Lyra exists in. Together they navigate this world experiencing danger, triumph and loss. This book can be complex as it jumps between characters and storylines which when reading can feel slow. I elected to listen to the audiobook which made it easier to digest.
I enjoyed learning more about the secondary characters and their dedication to protecting Lyra even sometimes at the expense of their own lives (and the life of their Daemon). We also get to learn about their past and how it shapes their present and future choices. We also get to learn more about Lord Asriel's and what Mrs Coulter is doing in order to attain as much power as she can. The book does touch on a lot of topics which sometimes get lost because of the shifting between character storylines.
Overall, this book is an inbetween to position the characters for the finale which is the Amber Spyglass. I look forward to listening to how the series ends.
I enjoyed learning more about the secondary characters and their dedication to protecting Lyra even sometimes at the expense of their own lives (and the life of their Daemon). We also get to learn about their past and how it shapes their present and future choices. We also get to learn more about Lord Asriel's and what Mrs Coulter is doing in order to attain as much power as she can. The book does touch on a lot of topics which sometimes get lost because of the shifting between character storylines.
Overall, this book is an inbetween to position the characters for the finale which is the Amber Spyglass. I look forward to listening to how the series ends.
readerworm28's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
wanderlustinglydia's review against another edition
5.0
I started reading this series in preparation for the show, His Dark Materials, on HBO. As a little bit of a background, I’m a person, who, if I like the series, I intend to read all of it. I usually find the books in the series provide so much more of a backstory in general. Which I then find helps to enrich the show or movie series I’m watching.
I really enjoyed this second book in the series. It was quite a departure from the setting of the first book. I really appreciate it when the second book in a series isn’t quite expected.
Spoiler
It’s not just about Lyra anymore. There’s a new storyline, which I’m glad about. I was going to find it hard to follow the series when it was only regarding Lyra.