Product Description

Will is the bearer of the subtle knife. He has promised his dying father that he will deliver the terrible blade to Lord Asriel. War is coming, the greatest war there has ever been, and the knifeis the only weapon that can defeat the enemy. A stranger in a world that is not his own, Will sets out on a perilous journey. But can he fulfil his promise when Lyra, his brave companion, has disappeared...?

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #4983 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-05
• Original language: English
• Binding: Paperback
• 544 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
Philip Pullman brings The Amber Spyglass to the spellbinding "His Dark Materials" sequence, which dazzles everyone who reads it, children and adults alike. After the original Northern Lights, he kept up the quality in The Subtle Knife, the second title in the trilogy. Now he brings the series to an extraordinary conclusion. Will and Lyra, the two children at the heart of the books, have become separated amidst great dangers. Can they find each other, and their friends? Then complete their mysterious quest before it's too late? The great rebellion against the dark powers that hold Lyra's world, and many others, in thrall is nearing its climax. She and Will have crucial parts to play, but they don't know what it is that they must do, and terrible powers are hunting them down.

The pace of the book is compelling, the writing powerful. Pullman's plotting is intricate and cunning, surprising the reader again and again. Perhaps what is most striking of all, however, is the depth of the characterisation. Lord Asriel, Mrs Coulter, Iorek Byrnison the king of the armoured bears, a host of minor characters, most of all Will and Lyra themselves: the book is a library of beautifully drawn, remarkably convincing characters walking in worlds of marvels.

In this volume the cosmic dimensions of the story become more prominent, as a great conflict across many universes comes to a head--how well the narrative sustains such immensely weighty resonances is a question critics may well disagree on. The author's beliefs also come more into the open, and with them a polemic anti-religious theme that will please some readers and alienate others.

Philip Pullman's writing commands immense respect; more than that, it is raising the profile of the best children's books among adults, as demanding critics of all ages fall in love with this remarkable trilogy. --David Pickering

Customer Reviews

Sensational....
I'll be brief, just to say that this is my favourite book of all time and is unquestionably a book for adults as it really is something special. Wonderfully moving and writen superbly.

Masterful book, sensitively 'adapted'
The gut-wrenchlingly beautiful, exciting, vividly epic finale to the trilogy 'His Dark Materials', this is the most complicated book to cope with in terms with its philosophical/fantastical logic, but it does indeed draw together the threads of the previous books and answer their mysteries in a way that is satisfying, emotionally and intellectually. Whether you view this purely as fantasy or take on board Pullman's atheist views as well as his anti-religious ones, this audiobook works incredibly well. There are just enough recurring character voices to avoid monotony but not so many as to confuse, although this is as much to do with the technique of the book as the audioplay's 'adaptation'. The result allows the story to build to climax, and the aftermath of the action play with just as much intensity. One loses little of the book's meaning and so I heartily recommend this as a substitute or refresher, even with the minor complaints that character voices are occasionally muffled and the (thankfully rare) music links utterly ruinous to the atmosphere.

Mary is the serpent
"A good example is Mary's prophesied (but never quite fulfilled) role as a temptress comparable to the serpent in the Garden of Eden."

I was transfixed listening (yes, it was like I was present in their company) to Mary's tale of her apostasy and 'seduction by marzipan'. It was obvious that Lyra's presentation of the Mulefa fruit to Will in the glade was directly influenced by Mary's story.

Eve was told "you will not die" and Lyra felt like all the doors in a previously unknown mansion were opening up to her. The introduction of new possibilities...

And yes, I had tears in my eyes throughout the final chapters.