Review: The Subtle Knife

The Subtle Knife by Philip Pullman
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Given the way the story is structured here- basically setting up for Amber Spyglass without resolving much of its own plotlines- this is going to be less a review of this as a standalone work (unlike Golden Compass, which stands out a lot better in comparison) and more a (somewhat long) commentary on the series up until this point. I don't really feel like getting into the whole debate over whether or not it's better to review a series like this as a whole over each title individually; I just felt like logging this now before I go and read the last book anyway because I think that it's still valid to comment on how a series progresses while in the midst of it, especially after covering a good chunk of it.

(...that said, I have to admit that even I am getting tired of these trilogy+ sized series that start out with a solid standalone title followed by sequels that basically force you to keep reading books 3+ for any equivalent level of payoff. I would love to read a series whose immediate sequel stands alone just as well or better than its predecessor for once.)

Anyway, I really like a lot of the concepts and ideas I've seen so far here (daemons, dust, spectres, angels, the innocence of youth vs. adulthood, the treatment of other worlds, etc.), some of which was responsible for making Golden Compass/Northern Lights so exciting and thrilling to dive into in the first place. There is so much potential for interesting world-building here, which ought to be a plus for anyone who's a fantasy fan, and the connections back to Paradise Lost just enhance that further while inviting us to think more deeply about the story and overall themes of this work.

The only problem is... I can't really tell how deeply I'm supposed to be thinking in the first place. Or at least, just going off what's been presented so far, two-thirds of the way into this series.

This isn't an unprecedented issue, to be honest (I think it's relevant to a lot of sci-fi/fantasy series given the nature of the genre). But it's particularly notable here because of the fact that this series specifically invokes Paradise Lost, both in its title and in its overarching plot. You don't just casually name-drop one of the most important works in all of English literature like that without having some high-minded goals in mind- unless you want to come off as shallow and pretentious, that is. Milton himself had extremely lofty ambitions when he started composing his work, many of which he arguably achieved (although perhaps not in the manner he intended, which is a whole other story), and to try to follow in those footsteps is incredibly daunting for any author, let alone a children's one.

Unfortunately, for all of the concepts and ideas presented in the series up until this point... not a whole lot of it feels really explored here yet, two-thirds of the way in. And I blame a lot of it on the structure of this follow-up work. Golden Compass left off at a point where we were just starting to see the connections to PL become realized, and Lyra starting to come into her own sense of maturity, which allegedly is supposed to encompass one of the major themes of this series. And then Subtle Knife came and forced us to start the whole development process over again with a new, unfamiliar protagonist (Will) who more-or-less hijacked Lyra's storyline (I mean honestly, what did Lyra really do or accomplish in this book? why is she even here?), with further diversions into other character POVs (Serafina Pekkala, Lee Scoresby, other witches whose names I forget) that tended to distract more with action and excitement than progress the themes of the series in any meaningful direction.

What's even more confusing here is, I actually don't get a sense of pretension from reading this series, even though you would expect something as much from a work that's reaching for such greater purpose with little payback so far. For what it's worth, this book is pretty enthralling to read (or at least it was for me), and it does a good job of setting up its universe in a way that leaves you just wondering about everything in it. I want to know what Asriel's beef with the Authority is and how he got into the position he's in now; I want to know where the spectres came from and what they have to do with the multiverse; I want to know why Dust is so important and how the angels we see are connected to it; I want to know what really makes children so special in this universe; and I want to know how all of these things tie into all of the big ideas that Pullman is going for, and what that has to do with the series title ("His Dark Materials") itself.

To me, the fact that I can still wonder and be asking all of these questions based on what's already been written suggests that Pullman himself has already contemplated these issues before. After all, he's the one directing the story here. And if you bother to read any articles or interviews about Pullman or His Dark Materials itself, it's easy to see that there is some kind of fleshed-out ideological foundation underpinning his work that merits discussion and that it's not all just shallow name-dropping (see infamous quotes like: "Blake said Milton was a true poet and of the Devil's party without knowing it. I [Pullman] am of the Devil's party and know it.").

It's just unfortunate (or else a bit annoying) that at the end of the day, the big ideas here feel obscured by more basic issues of plot structure/composition and progression. Granted, this is a kid's series and all, but it still feels relevant to comment on these things given that there's only one book left to go, and therefore a lot of ground to still cover if Pullman hopes to meet whatever aspirations he's set up until this point. And I see a real risk in a situation like this of the author going too far or overboard in trying to meet all of his goals for this series and thereby turning its resolution into some kind of a preachy sermon on the virtues of rejecting organized religion or whatever, all while forgetting that it's also supposed to be a fantasy at the end of the day- in other words, the complete opposite of the problem that this book had.