"The Subtle Knife": Sequel to "Golden Compass": A Book Review

The attack raised by the Christian right to the "Golden Compass," is in my mind premature and should have been directed more at the second and third books in the series.  The Second Book does tend to stand the Christian Scriptures and the traditions of the Catholic Church somewhat on their head.

As is common with the second book of any fantasy trilogy, especially one involving a quest -- a concept almost universal to fantasy trilogies since Tolkein, this book is more about getting from one point to another.  It simply follows a current picking up necessary accumulated facts and explanations as it flows from the end of the Golden Compass towards the third book in the trilogy.

In this book Lyra, the principal character of the Golden Compass, is joined by another principle character, namely another child known as William Parry.  Other supporting characters show up in this novel as well, but as is typical of the second book in a trilogy, this book does not really stand on its own.  It makes a person a little wistful for the pre-Tolkein, pre-Star Wars era when there might be a series of books pertaining to the same cast of characters but each stood on it own.

This book although normally found in the young adult section of the bookstore or library, is again a case of double layers both young and adult.  In this case, as was the case in the Golden Compass, the author Phillip Pullman in a couple passages is very blunt about what is going on so that the those of slower wit can say, "Oh, that's what this is about."

Its those "Oh, that's what this is about," moments or paragraphs which coupled with the jarring references to God, that causes the Christian rights hackles to rise.  The book would work just fine without either, but every author has the right to gratuituously insult anyone the publisher allows him to -- and its clear that he was allowed to do so freely in this work.

The knife from which the book takes its name is quite a wonderous creation capable of cutting the finest of the fine, way beyond splitting hairs down to splitting atoms and such.  It can cut holes to othe dimensions, and I think it can be said without spoiling anything that it is thought to be able to slice and dice anything including... well, you figure that out.

This book does not, work quite so well as young adult fiction other than a rollicking chase scene.  On the adult level, one can figure out fairly well that you have two groups again chasing power and neither seem to be very much on God's side of the whole scenario.  And through it all Lyra and Will are just being buffeted by one current or another and are quite at a loss as to what is really going on.

This, of course, is a little contrived, because they are supposed to be innocents.  Remember in the first book nobody dares tell Lyra what she is really suppose to be doing she has to figure it out herself?  Yeah, well Will is in the same predicament.  Now think "innocent" and then "fig leaves"  and toss in the "war in heaven" before the world began and you can surmise why the "fundmental Christians" are so upset.

But, in fairness -- one can work through this book and the philosophies involved and say, "Okay, this is another perspective on who was right and who was wrong when Michael and Lucifer went to war."  And, I think that is fair game for adults to ponder and work through until they come to their own conclusion.  But, the question is should this book have some kind of warning label, and if not -- well then I guess the fundamentalists are within their rights to proclaim -- "CAUTION BLASPHEMY AHEAD."  The only problem is, the louder they do so the better the movies will sell.