Review: The subtle knife

The Subtle Knife  - Philip Pullman

If you like fantasy, the idea of witches, angels, shamans, specters, gods and so forth, you'll probably like this book. Somehow all of these characters are merged into this story and more interestingly, it includes scenes similar to the present day which connects the efforts of physicists who are trying find out the extra-terrestrial life and what is beyond our galaxy. 

 

I might have sounded too serious, but it's not like that.  The story is centered around two children around the age of 12. One, a boy, lives in our world and the other, a girl, in another world. The boy lost his father when he was still very young. Since then, his mother appeared to be mentally retarded which is how the present day would diagnose the case but in the other world, it is more than what we think it is. 

 

Accidentally, the boy finds an entrance to the other world who meets a girl who has the key to where his father is. The girl is in search of a material called Dust while the boy wants to protect his mother and find his father. Thus, they help each other out and face many challenges along the way. And the concept of world travelling is slowly revealed throughout the story. 

 

This book is in fact, the second book of a trilogy - His Dark Materials. Yes, I started in the middle of the trilogy, the second book and I just cannot choose what to read next first! XD On one hand, I want to know what happens next. The angels knows what's really happening between all the worlds but the character of angels seems a little heretic to me? or maybe just unconventional. Are they on the bad side or the good side? On the other, I simply want to know what happened before. There are so many characters that came up each with their own background. Still, many questions unanswered.

 

It's not so bad reading the second book. It left me hanging.. wanting to read more. :)