This is the second volume of the His Dark Materials trilogy, re-read to tie in with the current BBC serialisation.
At the end of volume one, Lyra walked into the hole in the sky created by her father Lord Asriel. Here we learn it leads to another world and the city of Cittagazze. The city is outwardly idyllic, but it is deserted except for bands of children. Where have the adults gone?
Meanwhile in Oxford (that is the Oxford in our world, not the similar Oxford in Lyra’s world) a young boy, Will Parry, delivers his mentally fragile mother to a safe location before confronting some ominous men in suits searching his house. They are after letters sent home by Will’s long lost father while on an expedition to the Alaskan wilderness. Will foils the men, takes the letters, and looks for somewhere safe to hide. He stumbles over a strange ‘hole in the air’ and climbs through to find himself also in Cittagazze.
Will and Lyra meet, and adventures ensue, involving Lyra’s mystical alethiometer gadget and a subtle knife that opens windows into other worlds. After some flitting between worlds, Lyra decides to continue on Lord Asriel’s trail. Will would like to find his father, too and fortunately, according to the alethiometer, both searches are entwined so the intrepid pair can set forth together.
Meanwhile the witches, led by Serafina Pekkala, seek Lyra for their own purposes; aided by Texan airman Lee Scoresby, whose role it is to find the shaman Stanislaus Grumman, who knows something important. Pursuing them all is Mrs Coulter, Lyra’s wicked mother, in deadly alliance with those Oxford men in suits and the sinister forces that emptied adults from the streets of Cittagazze.
People get hurt,
wounded, tortured, killed, so this is no fairy story. It moves quickly and,
provided the fantasy is bought into, satisfyingly. But as the middle book of
the trilogy, little is resolved. Instead the pieces are left nicely set up for
the finale in book three.
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