Book Review |
| The Subtle Knife |
By Philip Pullman |
| This exciting sequel to the book 'Northern
Lights' is just as exciting, enjoyable and action-packed as its predecessor. Join William
as he journeys from our world into a knew world by travelling through a gap in the fabric
between our world and another. Lyra, having travelled through a different gap (which was
created by her mysterious father - Lord Asriel) between her world and the other one,
soon meets him there. They have to retrieve a mysterious object capable of many
things. That object is the Subtle knife! New mysteries unfold in this exciting book. What
do Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter plan to do? What is the Subtle knife capable of? Where will
Lyra and William go? Find out in this excellent book! I like the characters because I feel like I could know them. Because of the way Phillip Pullman has described them, I feel almost as if they were my best friends. Philip Pullman makes me admire William, Lyra and Pantalaimon's brave efforts. By describing the main characters in full detail, he helps to build up the readers relationship with the characters. He tells you about their every move to add to this. Philip Pullman uses the daemons as extensions of their human's minds. Many of the human's thoughts which would normally be spoken to their conscience are spoken to their daemons. Philip Pullman uses this technique to add to character relationship. The daemons of people from Lyra's world are in some way linked to their humans. If they pull away from their humans, they both perish. Until their humans reach a certain age, Daemons are gifted with the power to change their shape. In this book (The Subtle Knife) and the book before (Northern Lights), Pantalaimon, who is Lyra's Daemon, is able to shape shift. When the Daemons are forced to settle into a single shape, the shape they choose represents their human's true nature. In Lyra's world there are witches. These people not only fly on broomsticks, but have the strange power to send their daemons long distances away from them. They also have long lives. The Subtle knife carries on from 'Northern Lights very well and it is a good idea to read one of them straight after the other. Again, I advise people to read this who are above nine years old. May 2001 |
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