Writing the reviews for these books have been the hardest I have ever written. Like I said in the first review, the His Dark Materials Series is amazing, and I love them all.  On the other hand, I understand how truly deep, and controversial these stories are, especially as a young adult series. So, please bear with me as I try to review the best and alternately more controversial book in the series.

Will and Lyra have stumbled into a war, a war against the ‘Authority’. I feel the need to make clear that the Authority is not the Creator. The Authority is not a fair and just ruler, and I feel like the war is deserved. As we are following the story from multiple characters point of view we are able to see the big picture. Unfortunately, Will and Lyra cannot, and the seemly small choices they make end up affecting this war hugely.

The Subtle Knife introduces a new main character into the Dark Materials Series, Will. Will is from our universe and about the age of Lyra. He is running from the police and stumbles into an alternate universe. This is the same that one Lyra ends up in at the end of previous novel. They meet and soon choose to join forces. Will is cool and calm, he never acts rashly. This balances out Lyra’s tendency to act before she thinks. I immediately like Will. He has a strong sense of right and wrong, and feels a strong sense of responsibility.

The new characters don’t end there. You meet many new characters that will all make significant impacts by the time the story is over. You meet them, typically before they meet each other. There are multiple story lines that crisscross all over the place. You meet the character who represents the serpent, which will tempt the modern day Eve into original sin. The religious implication is clear to me, but it is buried in the story so it could possibly be overlooked.

If you hear that the Dark Materials Books were written to undermine Christian belief, you have heard correctly. I consider myself strong in my religious beliefs, and as such, I can enjoy a fiction novel with out it swaying my beliefs. I do know that these novels will not be for everyone, but I did enjoy this series very much.

Northern Lights, or Golden Compass as I remember, is not in this dimension. It is a world where our souls live outside of our bodies, called daemons. They are always the opposite sex of us, and when we are young they can change into any animal. Although as we hit puberty the daemon will settle on one animal, the animal they choose is indicative of our personalities. We can speak to our daemons, but it is considered improper to touch another’s daemon.