The Subtle Knife
Chapters - Philip Pullman
Chapter 1: The Cat and the Hornbeam Trees
Will Parry leaves his mentally ill mother in the care of an elderly neighbour and flees with his father's letters, accidentally killing an intruder who was searching his home. He follows a cat through a window in the air near Oxford and enters the strange, deserted coastal city of Cittagazze, where he encounters Lyra, who has arrived from her own world searching for information about Dust.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon·Mentioned: Stanislaus Grumman
Chapter 2: Among the Witches
Serafina Pekkala infiltrates a ship where Mrs Coulter is torturing a captured witch for information about a prophecy concerning Lyra. Serafina mercifully kills the witch, shoots the Cardinal, and escapes, then visits Lord Asriel's servant Thorold on Svalbard, who reveals Asriel intends to wage war against the Authority itself. At a great witch council, Lee Scoresby announces his plan to find Stanislaus Grumman, and witch queen Ruta Skadi declares war on the Magisterium.
POV: Serafina Pekkala·On page: Mrs Coulter, Lee Scoresby, Fra Pavel, Ruta Skadi, Thorold, Juta Kamainen, Ozymandias·Mentioned: Lord Boreal, Lyra Belacqua, Lord Asriel, Iorek Byrnison, Stanislaus Grumman
Chapter 3: A Children's World
Will and Lyra explore Cittagazze together and meet Angelica and her brother Paolo, local children who explain the city is infested with Specters that devour the souls of adults but cannot harm children. Will shows Lyra the window back to Oxford, where she is nearly hit by a car, and he establishes their cover identities as brother and sister named Mark and Lizzie Ransom.
POV: Lyra Belacqua, Will Parry·On page: Pantalaimon, Angelica, Paolo
Chapter 4: Trepanning
Will learns from his father's lawyer and an Oxford archaeologist that John Parry vanished on an expedition to the Arctic, and discovers that the same pale-haired men who searched his home are also investigating. Lyra finds the Dark Matter Research Unit and meets Dr Mary Malone, a physicist studying shadow particles - which Lyra recognises as Dust - and produces an extraordinary display on Mary's detector, demonstrating that Shadows are conscious and respond to thought. In the museum, Lyra also encounters an elegant old man called Charles who takes a keen interest in her.
POV: Will Parry, Lyra Belacqua·On page: Pantalaimon, Mary Malone, Lord Boreal·Mentioned: Mrs Coulter, Stanislaus Grumman
Chapter 5: Airmail Paper
Will and Lyra quarrel but then build trust, with Lyra revealing her alethiometer has confirmed Will's quest to find his father. They hide in two cinemas to pass the time, and Lyra tells Will the story of her journey from Jordan College through Bolvangar to Svalbard. Back in Cittagazze, Will rescues the tabby cat from stone-throwing children and reads his father's letters, which describe an anomaly - a window between worlds - in the Alaskan Arctic, confirming that his father found the same phenomenon Will discovered.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon·Mentioned: Lord Asriel, Mrs Coulter, Roger Parslow, Stanislaus Grumman
Chapter 6: Lighted Fliers
Lee Scoresby arrives in Nova Zembla and gathers intelligence about Stanislaus Grumman at the Samirsky Hotel, learning the man was a shaman with a trepanned skull and a Tartar name - Jopari. At the Imperial Muscovite Observatory, Lee learns that Grumman is still alive and has powerful enemies. Meanwhile, Serafina's witches and Ruta Skadi enter the world of Cittagazze, where a local man tells them about the Guild of philosophers who opened doorways between worlds, unleashing the Specters. Ruta Skadi flies off to follow a troop of angels heading north toward Lord Asriel's fortress.
POV: Lee Scoresby, Serafina Pekkala·On page: Ruta Skadi·Mentioned: Lord Asriel, Stanislaus Grumman
Chapter 7: The Rolls Royce
Lyra returns to Oxford and visits Dr Malone again, but encounters police officers investigating her. She talks her way out and returns to the lab, only to be warned by Dr Malone that people are watching. Lord Boreal, operating in Will's world as Sir Charles Latrom, steals the alethiometer from Lyra during a car ride. When Will and Lyra confront him at his grand house in Headington, he reveals he knows about the window between worlds and offers to return the alethiometer only if they bring him the subtle knife from the Torre degli Angeli in Cittagazze.
POV: Lyra Belacqua, Will Parry·On page: Pantalaimon, Lord Boreal, Mary Malone·Mentioned: Iorek Byrnison
Chapter 8: The Tower of the Angels
Will and Lyra enter the Tower of the Angels and find its keeper, Giacomo Paradisi, being tortured by a young man named Tullio who wants the subtle knife. Will fights Tullio and loses two fingers from his left hand, but wins the knife - the mark of the true bearer. Giacomo teaches Will to use the knife's two edges: one that cuts any material, and another that cuts windows between worlds. The old man reveals the knife's tragic history, how the Guild's experiments let the Specters into the world, and tells Will never to let Lord Boreal get it before announcing he will take poison rather than face the Specters.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, Lord Boreal, Giacomo Paradisi, Tullio
Chapter 9: Theft
Will and Lyra use the subtle knife to break into Sir Charles's house through Cittagazze, cutting windows between worlds to bypass his security. Will retrieves the alethiometer just as Mrs Coulter arrives to visit Sir Charles, and barely escapes when her golden monkey daemon nearly comes through a closing window. The tabby cat saves Lyra by distracting the monkey, allowing her to escape through the window, and Will seals it shut behind them, returning the alethiometer to Lyra.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, Lord Boreal, Mrs Coulter, Ozymandias
Chapter 10: The Shaman
Lee Scoresby travels up the Yenisei River to find Grumman's adopted Tartar tribe and meets the shaman himself - Stanislaus Grumman, also called Jopari. Grumman reveals he knows about the subtle knife and needs Lee to fly him to its bearer, whom he must direct to Lord Asriel. Lee is wary but persuaded by Grumman's charismatic authority, and they prepare to take to the air.
POV: Lee Scoresby·On page: Stanislaus Grumman·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua, Serafina Pekkala, Iorek Byrnison, John Faa, Lord Asriel
Chapter 11: The Belvedere
Will wakes badly wounded and bleeding in the white villa. Lyra confesses she saw Tullio attacked by Specters and that Angelica saw her watching from the tower, meaning the children of Cittagazze now view them as enemies. Will theorises that Specters eat people's daemons and may originate from his world. A mob of children led by Angelica and armed with sticks and guns attacks the villa, but the witches of Serafina Pekkala's clan arrive just in time, rescuing Will and Lyra and carrying them to safety.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, Serafina Pekkala, Angelica·Mentioned: Lord Boreal, Mrs Coulter, Tullio
Chapter 12: Screen Language
Dr Malone's colleague Dr Payne returns from Geneva, sceptical of her findings. Sir Charles Latrom visits their lab offering to advocate for their funding, but only if they redirect their research - which Dr Malone sees through and refuses. Later, alone with the Cave computer, Dr Malone succeeds in making the shadow particles communicate in words on screen. The Shadows tell her to play the role of the serpent and instruct her to go through a doorway, which she does - stepping through the window in Sunderland Avenue and into Cittagazze.
POV: Mary Malone·On page: Lord Boreal·Mentioned: Lyra Belacqua
Chapter 13: Æsahættr
The witches perform a healing spell on Will's wounded hand, and Serafina's clan agrees to help Lyra guide Will to his father. Ruta Skadi rejoins them and tells of Lord Asriel's enormous fortress and his army preparing to wage war on the Authority, and of the cliff-ghasts' prophecy about Aesahaettr - the god-destroyer - which Lord Asriel needs to win. Serafina and Ruta Skadi discuss whether Lyra herself might be the Aesahaettr, and a host of angels gathers around the sleeping children in a kind of pilgrimage before Ruta Skadi departs to rally all the witch clans.
POV: Serafina Pekkala·On page: Will Parry, Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, Ruta Skadi·Mentioned: Lord Asriel, Mrs Coulter
Chapter 14: Alamo Gulch
Lee Scoresby and Stanislaus Grumman fly by balloon over Cittagazze and onward, but are pursued by a zeppelin carrying soldiers of the Magisterium's Imperial Guard. Lee lands in a mountain gulch to make a stand while Grumman goes on alone to find the knife bearer. In a desperate last battle, Lee holds off the soldiers with his rifle, shooting down man after man, while suffering terrible wounds. He calls out to Serafina Pekkala for help with the scarlet flower she gave him, and then he and his daemon Hester die together, having bought Grumman the time he needed.
POV: Lee Scoresby·On page: Stanislaus Grumman·Mentioned: Serafina Pekkala, Lyra Belacqua
Chapter 15: Bloodmoss
Will, Lyra, and the witches climb through barren mountains guided by the alethiometer, while Mrs Coulter and her daemon-severed soldiers pursue them from behind, capturing and killing a witch. On a stormy mountainside, Will encounters his father at last - Stanislaus Grumman is John Parry - who tells him the subtle knife is the one weapon that can defeat the Authority and commands him to take it to Lord Asriel. But before they can truly recognise each other, the witch Juta Kamainen kills John Parry with an arrow, driven by scorned love. Will swears to fulfil his father's mission, takes his cloak, and descends to find that Lyra has been captured - taken while the witches fell to Specters - leaving only her rucksack with the alethiometer behind.
POV: Will Parry·On page: Lyra Belacqua, Pantalaimon, Serafina Pekkala, Mrs Coulter, Juta Kamainen, Stanislaus Grumman, Lord Boreal, Ozymandias·Mentioned: Lee Scoresby