Captivating and enchanting
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Having watched the film "The Golden Compass" I bought and read the first book ("His Dark Materials") which I found very enjoyable.
This book continues, opening up world after world, each with its own unique character.
Full of twists and revelations, beautifully written, easy to read, and delightful.
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Decent performance, a few niggles
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Half audio book, half audio play, this 'performance' of Pullman's novel is mostly successful, the performers normally convincing and the narrator hushed but not overly emotional. Only a few niggles: the volume level or audio quality of different speakers (who _seem_ to have been recorded independently and stitched together by editors) is occasionally variable, making a consistent listen at times only possible in a quiet environment. More irritating, though, is the dreadful linking music: horribly synthesized instrument sounds in cues that do everything to ruin the magic of the story.
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Top notch!
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Like Northern Lights, I found this a bit of a slow starter, but once it gets going you suddenly realise the sheer breadth and scope of the trilogy's vision - huge!
A lot more adult in tone than Northern Lights, which made for a better reading experience for me. This book also starts to deal with some very adult themes, such as death, religion and authority.
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The Subtle Knife
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This is a brilliant book about a boy called Will who has to try and find his father, and a girl called Lyra. They both come from different worlds. Will has just murdered a man and he's on the run. He finds a window which leads to a different world where for the first time he meets Lyra. Lyra has also come from another world but not from Will's world. She has come from a world where people have deamons. Lyra and Will have to work together to find Roger, Lyra's friend, and Will's father who has mysteriously disappeared.
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Best of the series
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This is the second book in the `His Dark Materials' trilogy and is the best.
Here is a synopsis of the story:
Will Parry is a 12 year old boy who is on the run for murder; his mother is not very well (mentally) and his father has been lost for a decade or so. On his quest to find his father, he meets Lyra (the main character or The Northern Lights - also part of the trilogy). Lyra is the owner of a truth teller, which is also known as the alethiometer. Along the way, Lyra has the alethiometer stolen and is sent on a quest to steal a weapon called the Subtle Knife from Città gazze if she wants it back.
Lyra and Will use the Subtle Knife to steal back the alethiometer, however upon returning to Città gazze, a world between Lyra's world and Will's world (Will's world is the same as our planet Earth), they find the local children - there are only children in this city as the Spectres took the adults souls (children cannot see the ghost type creatures) are out to kill them for taking the knife. The witches from Lyra's world eventually rescue them and they journey on together.
Lee Scoreby is also from the first book; he is trying to discover where Lyra has got to and on his way he meets Stanislaus Grumman. Scoresby believes Grumman may help him uncover Asriel's plans and help Lyra. When Scoresby finally finds him, Grumman asks the aeronaut, Mr Scoreby, to take him through the aurora into the other world so Grumman can guide the two to the bearer of the Subtle Knife.
Will, still bleeding from his wound after a fight for the knife, meets Stanislaus Grumman, who heals his fingers and instructs him to take the Subtle Knife to Lyra's father, Lord Asriel, to use as a weapon against The Authority (the Church).
This book is currently my all time favourite book. It is exciting, adventurous and something that is so brilliant from cover to cover that you can't put it down. That is what happened to me but unfortunately, tiredness took over me once or twice and I did put it down but I would read it for around 3 or 4 hours a night for about 3/ 4 days.
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