Genre: adventure, myth, religion, fantasy
Main Characters: Lyra is the main character and is a strong-willed verging-on-teenage girl who has a prophecy written about her in the witch community. She is also finding herself being hunted down by many people such as a priest trying to kill her, Will trying to find her and Mrs Coulter wanting to look after her.
Another character is Will Parry who is Lyra's sort of close friend or companion. Her and Will go on many adventures and by the end of the book are extremely close. However, all the time through the book Will has a nagging feeling about his mother as he has left her back in his own world which then goes on to make him break the subtle knife (read The Subtle Knife book 2).
We also have the boisterous somewhat cold-hearted couple of Lord Asriel who is Lyra's father and who is lining up for against the church; the second member of the couple is Lyra's mother, the pretty Mrs Coulter who is demented by the thought of Lyra being killed and who then sides with the church. Lastly there is Dr Mary Malone who was studying dust in Oxford but now went into a different world, coming across a new species of creature that brings her a vital piece of information about dust. The church think Mary is going to be the tempter that the Witches prophesise about. There were many other creatures such as talking polar bears, Gallivespian spies, witches, ghosts, mulefa, harpies, angles and many more
Why I like it: I enjoyed this book as this was such complex plot with so many different stories going on; it took me some time to grasp the plot which made me like it even more as I had to work at it which made it interesting
Setting: Many different worlds such as our world and the world of the dead.
Favourite character: I liked Lord Asriel as he was a bit of a mystery; you never knew if he was good or bad and if he was on Lyra's side or not.
Favourite part: I like the bit when Lord Asriel and Mrs Coulter sacrificed their lives to kill Meatron (an angel) and when they both discovered something about their view on Lyra and each other.
Recommendation: I recommend this to a person who likes an extremely action packed book with emotion but doesn't mind a challenge as it may take some time to get your head round the plot.
Star Rating: 5
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