The Subtle Knife

by Philip Pullman

Twelve-year-old Will Parry is caring for his mentally ill mother when he accidentally kills an intruder and runs away to Oxford. There, entering a portal to a parallel universe, Will discovers the deserted city of Cittàgazze where he meets Lyra Silvertongue and her dæmon Pantalaimon, who similarly arrived from her world via a bridge in the sky created by her father, Lord Asriel.

The witch Serafina Pekkala eavesdrops on Mrs Coulter, Lyra's wicked mother, torturing a witch for the prophecy that concerns Lyra. Serafina kills the witch before she can reveal the details and takes a troop of witches to search for Lyra, while aeronaut Lee Scoresby searches for Stanislaus Grumman, previously believed dead, as he may have knowledge of a powerful object which Scoresby intends to use to protect Lyra.

Will returns to his world through the portal and finds information about his father, who went missing on an expedition. Lyra searches Will's Oxford for information about Dust, mysterious particles connected to consciousness. On the advice of her alethiometer, a truth-telling device, Lyra meets the physicist Dr Mary Malone, who has a computer that can communicate with dark matter. Lyra realises that dark matter appears to be the same as what she knows as Dust in her own world. After accepting a lift from a gentleman introducing himself as Sir Charles Latrom, Lyra realises he has stolen her alethiometer. Sir Charles forces Will and Lyra into retrieving a mysterious knife from Cittàgazze for the alethiometer's return. They defeat a youth who has taken the knife from its holder, Giacomo Paradisi, but Will loses two fingers in the fight. Giacomo explains that this is the sign of the knife's next bearer, and explains its power: the ability to cut through any material, even the fabric between worlds. He also explains that their world is haunted by soul-eating spectres, which prey on adolescents and adults but ignore children.

Will uses the knife to cut a hole from Cittàgazze into Charles's home. They overhear a conversation with Mrs Coulter. Lyra realises that Charles is Lord Boreal, having travelled from her world long ago, and Will hears news of his father, who discovered a doorway between the worlds. They escape to Cittàgazze with the alethiometer and are rescued from marauding children by Serafina Pekkala, who attempts unsuccessfully to heal Will's wound with a spell.

Sir Charles visits Dr Malone, threatening to cut her funding unless she co-operates with him. She later follows Lyra's suggestion to communicate with dark matter using her computer. The consciousness Dr Malone communicates with instructs her to destroy the computer and travel through the same window between worlds used by Will and Lyra, explaining her role is to "play the serpent".

Lee Scoresby finds Grumman living as a shaman known as Jopari (a corruption of his original name John Parry): Will's father. Grumman has summoned Scoresby to take him to the bearer of the knife and to assist Lord Asriel, who is assembling an army to rebel against an ancient being called the Authority. They set off in Scoresby's hot air balloon but are forced to land by soldiers of the Church. Scoresby contacts Serafina for help and dies holding off the soldiers so that Grumman can complete his task. Serafina leaves Lyra to follow Scoresby's call. Mrs Coulter tricks Charles into revealing the secret of the knife and kills him. She uses the spectres, which she has learned to control, to torture a witch into revealing the prophecy: Lyra is the second Eve. Mrs Coulter plans to destroy Lyra rather than risk a second Fall.

Will finds his father, who staunches the bleeding in his hand and instructs him to join Lord Asriel's forces. Immediately thereafter, Grumman is killed by a vengeful witch whose love he had once spurned. Will returns to camp to find a pair of angels waiting to guide him to Asriel. He goes to awaken Lyra, but discovers she is missing and her guardian witches' souls have been drained by spectres.