神秘の短剣〈上〉 ライラの冒険II (新潮文庫) [文庫]

Lyra finds herself in a shimmering, haunted underworld—Cittàgazze, where soul-eating Specters stalk the streets and wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky. But she is not without allies: 12-year-old Will Parry, fleeing for his life after taking another’s, has also stumbled into this strange new realm.

On a perilous journey from world to world, Lyra and Will discover an object of devastating power. And with every step, they move closer to an even greater threat—and the shattering truth of their own destiny. --このテキストは、 マスマーケット 版に関連付けられています。

オーロラの中に現れた世界に渡ったライラ。そこは魔物が住み、子どもしかいないチッタガーゼという街だった。そこでライラは別の世界から来たウィルという少年に出会う。二人は特殊な窓を通り、ウィルの世界とチッタガーゼを行き来する。やがて二人は不思議な短剣の存在を知るが、ライラは大切な真理計を何者かに盗まれてしまう…。世界的ベストセラーの冒険ファンタジー第2弾。

ライラは別の世界からやって来た少年ウィルと出会う。空間を切りさき別世界への扉を開くことのできる「短剣」を持つ少年と、羅針盤を持つライラに課せられた使命とは…。カーネギー賞受賞の冒険ファンタジー・シリーズ第2弾。 --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

With The Golden Compass Philip Pullman garnered every accolade under the sun. Critics lobbed around such superlatives as "elegant," "awe-inspiring," "grand," and "glittering," and used "magnificent" with gay abandon. Each reader had a favorite chapter--or, more likely, several--from the opening tour de force to Lyra's close call at Bolvangar to the great armored-bear battle. And Pullman was no less profligate when it came to intellectual firepower or singular characters. The dæmons alone grant him a place in world literature. Could the second installment of his trilogy keep up this pitch, or had his heroine and her too, too sullied parents consumed him? And what of the belief system that pervaded his alternate universe, not to mention the mystery of Dust? More revelations and an equal number of wonders and new players were definitely in order.

The Subtle Knife offers everything we could have wished for, and more. For a start, there's a young hero--from our world--who is a match for Lyra Silvertongue and whose destiny is every bit as shattering. Like Lyra, Will Parry has spent his childhood playing games. Unlike hers, though, his have been deadly serious. This 12-year-old long ago learned the art of invisibility: if he could erase himself, no one would discover his mother's increasing instability and separate them.

As the novel opens, Will's enemies will do anything for information about his missing father, a soldier and Arctic explorer who has been very much airbrushed from the official picture. Now Will must get his mother into safe seclusion and make his way toward Oxford, which may hold the key to John Parry's disappearance. But en route and on the lam from both the police and his family's tormentors, he comes upon a cat with more than a mouse on her mind: "She reached out a paw to pat something in the air in front of her, something quite invisible to Will." What seems to him a patch of everyday Oxford conceals far more: "The cat stepped forward and vanished." Will, too, scrambles through and into another oddly deserted landscape--one in which children rule and adults (and felines) are very much at risk. Here in this deathly silent city by the sea, he will soon have a dustup with a fierce, flinty little girl: "Her expression was a mixture of the very young--when she first tasted the cola--and a kind of deep, sad wariness." Soon Will and Lyra (and, of course, her dæmon, Pantalaimon) uneasily embark on a great adventure and head into greater tragedy.

As Pullman moves between his young warriors and the witch Serafina Pekkala, the magnetic, ever-manipulative Mrs. Coulter, and Lee Scoresby and his hare dæmon, Hester, there are clear signs of approaching war and earthly chaos. There are new faces as well. The author introduces Oxford dark-matter researcher Mary Malone; the Latvian witch queen Ruta Skadi, who "had trafficked with spirits, and it showed"; Stanislaus Grumman, a shaman in search of a weapon crucial to the cause of Lord Asriel, Lyra's father; and a serpentine old man whom Lyra and Pan can't quite place. Also on hand are the Specters, beings that make cliff-ghasts look like rank amateurs.

Throughout, Pullman is in absolute control of his several worlds, his plot and pace equal to his inspiration. Any number of astonishing scenes--small- and large-scale--will have readers on edge, and many are cause for tears. "You think things have to be possible," Will demands. "Things have to be true!" It is Philip Pullman's gift to turn what quotidian minds would term the impossible into a reality that is both heartbreaking and beautiful. --Kerry Fried
--このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

In a starred review, PW said, "More than fulfilling the promise of The Golden Compass, this second volume in the His Dark Materials trilogy starts off at a heart-thumping pace and never slows down." Ages 12-up. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc. --このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

THE STUNNING SEQUEL TO THE GOLDEN COMPASS

Having slipped through a newly formed astral portal, the intrepid Lyra finds herself in the beautiful, haunted world of Cittàgazze--a city where soul-eating Specters stalk the streets and the wingbeats of distant angels sound against the sky. But she is not without allies. For young Will Parry, in search of his father, has also stumbled into this strange new realm via a magic gateway.

Together the enlightened pair forge ahead on a perilous journey between worlds teeming with witches, angels, and sorcery--and uncover a deadly secret: an object of extraordinary and devastating power. But with every step, they move closer to an even greater threat--and the shattering truth of their own destiny . . .
--このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

"JUST AS QUICK-MOVING AND UNPUTDOWNABLE AS [THE GOLDEN COMPASS] . . . The mysteries deepen and the wonders grow even more extravagant."
--The Washington Post Book World

"More than fulfilling the promise of The Golden Compass, this second volume in the His Dark Materials trilogy starts off a heart-thumping pace and never slows down. . . . The grandly exuberant storytelling is sure to enthrall."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

"COMPELLING . . . RIFE WITH HIGH ADVENTURE . . .DESTINED TO BECOME A CLASSIC."
--Detroit Free Press
--このテキストは、絶版本またはこのタイトルには設定されていない版型に関連付けられています。

Philip Pullman has won many distinguished prizes, including the Carnegie Medal for The Golden Compass (and the reader-voted "Carnegie of Carnegies" for the best children's book of the past seventy years); the Whitbread (now Costa) Book of the Year Award for The Amber Spyglass; a Booker Prize long-list nomination (The Amber Spyglass); Parents' Choice Gold Awards (The Subtle Knife and The Amber Spyglass); and the Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award, in honor of his body of work. In 2004, he was appointed a Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

Philip Pullman is the author of many books for young readers, including two volumes related to the His Dark Materials trilogy: Lyra's Oxford and Once Upon a Time in the North. He lives in Oxford, England. To learn more, please visit www.philip-pullman.com and www.hisdarkmaterials.com. --このテキストは、 マスマーケット 版に関連付けられています。

プルマン,フィリップ
1946年、英国ノリッジ生れ。父親が英国空軍の軍人のため、子供時代は様々な国で暮らす。オックスフォード大学を卒業後、ウエストミンスター大学で英文学を教えるかたわら、小説、芝居の脚本、絵本などを発表。ビクトリア時代を背景とした小説The Ruby in the Smokeなど多くのベストセラーがある。現在はオックスフォード在住

大久保 寛
1954年、東京生れ。早稲田大学卒業(本データはこの書籍が刊行された当時に掲載されていたものです)