Take a photo of a barcode or cover
krichardson 's review for:
The Subtle Knife
by Philip Pullman
In some ways this was better than the first one, but I think it made me realize what my problem was with the first one too. Will is a more interesting protagonist in my opinion because his voice is just a little bit older than Lyra's. Other than Will and Lyra, the characters seem to make arbitrary yet very firm decisions whether they're going to be entirely evil or entirely good. The good ones can have one conversation with a protagonist and suddenly decide they're willing to die for Will and/or Lyra. It creates several deus ex machina situations where someone powerful they just met saves the day in an unsatisfying manner. We also still have no understanding of the motivation of the evil ones. The addition of biblical lore missed the mark for me too, but that's just a personal preference.