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A review by ruth24
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
4.0
I rated The Subtle Knife 4/5 stars. Even though that's the same as I rated The Golden Compass, I didn't like it as much. I think that's common in a series, as the first book (if it was really good) builds up so much expectation that you're bound to be a bit disappointed. Even so, it was still a 4/5 star book for me, so I'm not complaining TOO much. But I will go into why I didn't like it as much as the first one.
1) The book felt like a necessary, but not as exciting, middle part of the story.
-I was reading a review of The Subtle Knife earlier and the person said they also felt like the book was just 'the middle' and didn't have a clearly defined beginning, middle and end. They had written a really scathing review of the book, before reading that a lot of people recommend seeing the three books as one long novel. After seeing things that way, he retracted his initial review and re-wrote it in a more positive light. I think I agree with this in some ways, as I am reading the books in sequence, as if they were a long novel, but at the same time plenty of other books that are in a series are capable of having a proper beginning, middle and end. So to sum up, IDK to be honest!
2) The story shifts away from Lyra.
- I really like Lyra as a character, so it's a little disappointing for me when the focus shifts to Will and to other characters in this second book. I don't think that's a fault in the writing - I'm just complaining for complaining's sake :) But I do see that Pullman is showing us that the story goes beyond Lyra, even beyond Will, as whatever is going to happen in the 3rd book is bigger than these two children.
- I guess what I really liked about the first book was the introduction to Lyra's world and there was definitely more of that in the second book. I especially liked the idea of the Specters.
What am I looking forward to in the next book?
1) The book felt like a necessary, but not as exciting, middle part of the story.
-I was reading a review of The Subtle Knife earlier and the person said they also felt like the book was just 'the middle' and didn't have a clearly defined beginning, middle and end. They had written a really scathing review of the book, before reading that a lot of people recommend seeing the three books as one long novel. After seeing things that way, he retracted his initial review and re-wrote it in a more positive light. I think I agree with this in some ways, as I am reading the books in sequence, as if they were a long novel, but at the same time plenty of other books that are in a series are capable of having a proper beginning, middle and end. So to sum up, IDK to be honest!
2) The story shifts away from Lyra.
- I really like Lyra as a character, so it's a little disappointing for me when the focus shifts to Will and to other characters in this second book. I don't think that's a fault in the writing - I'm just complaining for complaining's sake :) But I do see that Pullman is showing us that the story goes beyond Lyra, even beyond Will, as whatever is going to happen in the 3rd book is bigger than these two children.
- I guess what I really liked about the first book was the introduction to Lyra's world and there was definitely more of that in the second book. I especially liked the idea of the Specters.
What am I looking forward to in the next book?