The Subtle Knife, by Philip Pullman

I don't like books whithout an end, that lead nowhere but the next book, or more likely to be a chapter of a book, not a book itself.
When I finished the Golden Compass I needed to keep on reading, because the story came to nowhere… I needed more information. What happened with Dust? What happened to Roger? Will Iorek find Lyra? Well, a lot of questions indeed, most of them without answers. I know I could sort them out by guess work but if I wanted accurate answers I would have to keep on reading the next book in order to get them.
Now then, the Subtle Knife was much more than I expected. And the history itself was much much more, than I hoped for.
This time it tells the story of Will who accidentally finds his way to another world, without grownups. And meets Lyra, soon they become close friends and start their adventures. Lyra needs to find out about Dust and Will needs to find his long-lost father, soon they find out that their paths meet, and Will finds his father as well as Lyra learns more about Dust.
Basically is like what happened in the first book, Kids don't get affected by Dust, unlike grownups. But in the world that they were at, grownups got killed by Spectres.
I got really touched by Will's story, the way he feels, like a kid sometimes though he's more likely to be a grownup, or at least he have to think as a grownup wich is very helpful. And it was really cool that he got to be the bearer of the Subtle Knife.
Also I really enjoyed and shared Pullman's point of view about the church, how it manipulates everything and it cuts and/or destroy everything that stands against it. Every tiny idea that might come to be a risk on "faith" is shattered and silenced.

Bookmarks:
" 'And he invited us to join him, sisters. To join his army against the Authority. [...] He showed me that to rebel was right and just, when you considered what the agents of the Authority did in His name... [...] he told me of many more hideous cruelties dealt out in the Authority's name-of how they capture witches, in some worlds, and burn them alive, sisters. Yes, witches like ourselves...
'He opened my eyes. He showed me things I had never seen, cruelties and horrors all comitted in the name of the Authority, all designed to destroy the joys and the truthfulness of life.' "

" 'There are two great powers, ' the man said, ' and they've been fighting since time began. Every advance in human life, every scrap of knowledge and wisdom and decency we have has been torn by one side from the teeth of the other. Every little increase in human freedom has been fought over ferociously between those who want us to know more and be wiser and stronger, and those who want us to obey and be humble and submit' "

From 0-5, 4.~