The Subtle Knife

The Subtle Knife (1997) is the second book in the His Dark Materials series by British author Phillip Pullman. The book expands on the universe introduced in Pullman’s first book of the series, which was titled Northern Lights in the UK and The Golden Compass in North America and was published in 1995.

The Subtle Knife was followed by The Amber Spyglass (2000). The series was praised for its immersive storytelling and Pullman’s ability to weave historical, philosophical, and literary themes into young adult fiction. The Subtle Knife won several awards, including the Parents’ Choice Gold Book Award and the American Library Association Best Book for Young Adults. Like many of Pullman’s works, the book ignited controversy due to what some organizations and readers saw as anti-religious messaging.

Content Warning: The Subtle Knife and this guide explore themes of mental illness, death, and abandonment.

This guide refers to the 2017 Random House edition of The Subtle Knife.

Plot Summary

The novel follows Will Parry, a 12-year-old boy from Winchester, England, who hopes to find his father. John Parry vanished shortly after Will’s birth without a trace. Will cares for his mother, who suffers from severe mental illness and paranoia. After accidentally killing an intruder who tries to steal his father’s letters, Will searches for clues in Oxford, leaving his mother in the care of his piano teacher. By following a cat, Will stumbles through a “window” to another place, the mysteriously empty seaside city of Cittàgazze. There he meets Lyra Silvertongue, the protagonist of The Golden Compass; she is trying to find Oxford to ask a scholar about “Dust.” Will begrudgingly shows her the window to his version of Oxford, and the two begin unravelling clues about the universe, their histories, and their destinies.

Lyra meets a physicist named Mary Malone who studies dark matter, the name for “Dust” in Will’s world. She and her colleagues have discovered that dark matter can connect with human consciousness. Lyra is skilled at interpreting a Dust-powered “truth telling” device known as an alethiometer, an advanced mechanical compass. She is able to prove Malone’s hypothesis when she communicates with the dark matter through a computer interface. She also attracts the attention of an old enemy when she meets Charles, a seemingly friendly older man at a museum who eventually tries to lead her into a trap with the help of her mother and the series’ main antagonist, Mrs. Coulter. Will, meanwhile, reads his father’s letters and discovers that he got lost while seeking a window to another world in Alaska. Will visits the archaeology department at the university, where he reads about the expedition.

Will and Lyra spend every night in Cittàgazze, an elegant city inhabited only by children. The adults have escaped because of the “Specters,” a rapidly expanding population of ghostly parasites who suck the humanity out of anyone over the age of puberty. Will and Lyra feel safe knowing that the adults who are chasing them cannot cross into this world, but wonder about the secrets within the elaborate Tower of Angels in the center of Cittàgazze. They take a disastrous trip to Oxford during which Charles steals Lyra’s alethiometer. After, they are forced into the tower in search of a knife that can cut through any material. Will loses two fingers in a fight for the knife, the mark of the knife bearer.

Back in Lyra’s world, the witch Serafina Pekkala and her clan, alongside Lee Scoresby, a balloon pilot from Texas, recover from the aftermath of the Bolvangar event, where barriers between realities are believed to have opened. Serafina and her clan agree to find Lyra, while Croatian witch queen Ruta Skadi follows a host of angels north to reconnect with her ex-lover Lord Asriel.

Lee Scoresby travels north to track down Stanislaus Grumman, a legendary explorer who was reportedly beheaded but continues to be seen in remote Arctic ports. When Lee finally finds him, he learns that Stanislaus is actually the British explorer John Parry—Will’s father. Parry has travelled in Lyra’s world for 12 years, eventually becoming a Tartar shaman. After an action-packed escape from soldiers of the Magisterium, in which Lee dies, Stanislaus/John eventually meets up with Will, who is on the run from Mrs. Coulter with Lyra and Serafina’s witches. John begins to explain Will’s place in the larger universal picture, but before the two fully realize they are father and son, John is killed by a witch whom he had romantically rejected. The next morning when Will and the witches wake up, Lyra is missing.