The Subtle Knife

philip pullman

Here is the highly anticipated second installment of Philip Pullman's epic fantasy trilogy, begun with the critically acclaimed The Golden Compass. Lyra and Will, her newfound friend, tumble separately into the strange tropical otherworld of Cittàgazze, "the city of magpies," where adults are curiously absent and children run wild. Here their lives become inextricably entwined when Lyra's alethiometer gives her a simple command: find Will's father. Their search is plagued with obstacles--some familiar and some horribly new and unfathomable--but it eventually brings them closer to Will's father and to the Subtle Knife, a deadly, magical, ancient tool that cuts windows between worlds. Through it all, Will and Lyra find themselves hurtling toward the center of a fierce battle against a force so awesome that leagues of mortals, witches, beasts, and spirits from every world are uniting in fear and anger against it. This breathtaking sequel will leave readers eager for the third and final volume of His Dark Materials.

Genres fantasyyoung adultfictionaudiobookadventurechildrensscience fictionscience fiction fantasymiddle gradesteampunk

288 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 22,1997

Series

His Dark Materials

Literary awards

audie award, north east teenage book award,

This edition

Format: 288 pages, Mass Market Paperback
Published: September 9, 2003 by Laurel Leaf
ISBN: 9780440238140
ASIN: 0440238145
Language: English

Characters More characters

Lyra Belacqua

A young girl who inhabits a universe parallel to our own. Brought up in the cloistered world of Jordan College, Oxford, she finds herself embroiled in a cosmic war between angels and a pseudodeity called The Authority. Source: Wikipedia and Wikipedia.&hel...
Will Parry

A 12-year-old boy who befriends Lyra Belacqua when he meets her in the world of Cittàgazze and teams up with her in order to uncover the mysteries of Dust. Source: Wikipediamore...
Mary Malone

Dr. Mary Malone is a physicist from Wills world (which is supposed to be the world in which the reader and author live), who is investigating dark matter, known also as Dust, and is told she must play the part of the Serpent for the second Adam and ...
Pantalaimon

Pantalaimon is Lyras dæmon. We first meet him in the form of a moth, camouflaging with the dark wooden atmosphere of Jordan College. He takes many forms throughout the trilogy, but is most often seen as an ermine, a wildcat or a mouse. He even takes...
Marisa Coulter

A woman from a universe parallel to our own. Mrs Coulter is a cunning politician who is highly placed and trusted in the Magisteriums hierarchy.more...
Lee Scoresby

Lee Scoresby is a skilled "aeronaut" balloonist from the country of Texas. In regards to Scoresbys name, Phillip Pullman says: "Lee Scoresby comes from two sources. One is the actor Lee Van Cleef, who looks just like the character. And the other is ...

About the author

philip pullman

Sir Philip Nicholas Outram Pullman is an English writer. His books include the fantasy trilogy His Dark Materials and The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ, a fictionalised biography of Jesus. In 2008, The Times named Pullman one of the "50 greatest British writers since 1945". In a 2004 BBC poll, he was named the eleventh most influential person in British culture. He was knighted in the 2019 New Year Honours for services to literature.
Northern Lights, the first volume in His Dark Materials, won the 1995 Carnegie Medal of the Library Association as the year's outstanding English-language children's book. For the Carnegie's 70th anniversary, it was named in the top ten by a panel tasked with compiling a shortlist for a public vote for an all-time favourite. It won that public vote and was named all-time "Carnegie of Carnegies" in June 2007. It was filmed under the book's US title, The Golden Compass. In 2003, His Dark Materials trilogy ranked third in the BBC's The Big Read, a poll of 200 top novels voted by the British public.