Scan barcode
A review by cloneknight
The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
4.0
Whoa...
Continuing my journey of the His Dark Materials trilogy with book number 2: The Subtle Knife. I absolutely loved the first book, and I really liked this one as well! It feels a lot more dense than the first one, which partly has to do with a bit of a switch. Lyra travelled to an all-new world at the end of the first book, but before that we catch up on a new character, who's world is a lot more like ours. As a result, a bit less time is spent on the world-building (although don't get me wrong, it's very much still there, just a little less) and instead we focus a lot more on the characters.
And the characters are awesome! We get entire chapters told from the perspective of who were side-characters in the previous book, all building up to a great event in the next book. This is very much the middle of the story, and though a lot of side-characters got their time to shine, and a new main character got the time he deserved, I would've liked to see a bit more of Lyra. Nonetheless, the story keeps moving and is engaging all the way.
The Subtle Knife is a more compact story compared to it's predecessor, which sometimes comes at the cost of world-building that made the first book so enjoyable and more insight in the main character, but there's still enough of that to have it be a very enjoyable read. I can't wait to see what happens next!
Continuing my journey of the His Dark Materials trilogy with book number 2: The Subtle Knife. I absolutely loved the first book, and I really liked this one as well! It feels a lot more dense than the first one, which partly has to do with a bit of a switch. Lyra travelled to an all-new world at the end of the first book, but before that we catch up on a new character, who's world is a lot more like ours. As a result, a bit less time is spent on the world-building (although don't get me wrong, it's very much still there, just a little less) and instead we focus a lot more on the characters.
And the characters are awesome! We get entire chapters told from the perspective of who were side-characters in the previous book, all building up to a great event in the next book. This is very much the middle of the story, and though a lot of side-characters got their time to shine, and a new main character got the time he deserved, I would've liked to see a bit more of Lyra. Nonetheless, the story keeps moving and is engaging all the way.
The Subtle Knife is a more compact story compared to it's predecessor, which sometimes comes at the cost of world-building that made the first book so enjoyable and more insight in the main character, but there's still enough of that to have it be a very enjoyable read. I can't wait to see what happens next!