The Subtle Knife / Philip Pullman

4.5 out of 5 stars

Lost in a new world, Lyra finds Will—a boy on the run, a murderer—a worthy and welcome ally. For this is a world where soul-eating Specters stalk the streets and witches share the skies with troops of angels.

Each is searching—Lyra for the meaning of Dark Matter, Will for his missing father—but what they find instead is a deadly secret, a knife of untold power. And neither Lyra nor Will suspects how tightly their lives, their loves, and their destinies are bound together... until they are split apart.

Top notch stuff. The Subtle Knife picks up where The Golden Compass left off and drags the reader forward, into other worlds and into peril. The children are precocious—bearing responsibilities well beyond their years—and the adults are unfathomable, with highly uncertain motives. Lyra & Will, despite feelings of inadequacy, don’t hesitate to step up—learn to take care of themselves, do research, ask questions, defend themselves. There are painful realizations to be had and dangerous adventures to be shared. I will definitely look forward to reading The Amber Spyglass in the near future.