I’m dragging myself kicking and screaming through this series. I am a contrarian and as such tend to revile the popular, which is my own loss in the end, of course. But as I get through the second of the trilogy I find that there is a lot less dragging, only the occasional derisive hoot, and only the rare flail.

“The Subtle Knife” appeals to me because it’s not afraid of the dark. Of death and anger. Of the full human gamut instead of the truncated, safe set of emotions that usually form the boundaries of children’s literature. But the bounds that Pullman does set are useful: I enjoy that there are limits to the fantasy, that things are magical but only just so much, that there are touchstones of recognizable reality to keep us grounded.

Having said that, some of Pullman’s metaphors are a stiff clonk to the head, blunt objects meant to be recognizable even by sniveling infants, apparently. They don’t really bother me–at least you’re not apt to gloss over them. But I can see the source of some of the upheaval. But then again not. What the hell are people afraid of? Oh, that’s right, hell. But anyway. That’s like asserting that novels about murder are going to make us all murderers. But I digress.

I am sure I have little to add the burgeoning available corpus of reviews and synopses. But I will say that, personally, the queer and parable-like city of Cittagazze appealed–I enjoyed how it took an ominous turn for the creepy. Will is an imperfect being, and trends towards violence. Is he dangerous? I find that I hope so.

The most snore element of the book to me, however, is probably the aspect other people would enjoy most: the crescendo towards all-out war. This is where fantasy bores me. I don’t really care about the action-packed showdown. I don’t find interest in the clash of metal on metal nor the explosive bursts of magic. It feels formulaic, and it’s what made the film versions of “The Lord of the Rings” unwatchable for me.

What I want–and I got here–is the dark depths of Lyra and Will, the interplay of space and time, the paradoxes, the contained inexplicable magic bits. Lovely and escapist!