Hey Blog! Over the recent weeks I have been doing a history class with my Humanatees tutor, Jake. It is called “’23”, and covers a year each century, from 1423 to 1923. I have decided to do a serious spoof of 2023 – to tie up the course and have fun!

“So, 2023 – this year sees a lot of changes from the last century. Last century, the world was well on its way to being modern, but now, it’s really come a huge step forward. If 1923 was all about end of empire, 2023 is more about climate, strikes, and (cough cough) politics. Let’s have a look through what has happened in this year.

“The world is recovering from a pandemic, which has seen the health services of every country stretched – and the disasters just keep on coming! The great covid pandemic of 2020 changed the year by a substantial amount. The world was changed, scientific establishments developed a vaccine for the virus in record time, thousands of people and businesses realised work at home was perfectly possible, and certain companies who could supply the global demand in “stay at home” times rocketed. I had never heard of Zoom before, or the word ‘pandemic’; by the end I was familiar with both. The virus created turmoil. Thousands of people died, thousands more got ‘long covid’, and took ages to get better; but by 2023, most of this is gone, and the world is getting back to normal.

“In 2022, war was declared between Russia and Ukraine, but in 2023, an old war boiled over again. Shortly after the pandemic was over, Russia declared war against Ukraine, which got the world back into even more trouble, with political tensions coming up on every topic. The west held with President Zelenski of Ukraine, but much of the east seemed to be more associating with President Putin of Russia. By 2023 this was has not abated, and both sides are saying the other must give up sometime soon. The Israel-HAMAS conflict, reignited after attacks in Gaza in October, is violent and filling the headlines. For those living in the warzones, life is horrific, and however much governments say it is all going well, for those on the ground, this is certainly not the case.

“Climate change is a big focus of this decade – experts predict the 2020s as a decisive decade for turning global warming around if ecosystems are to survive. With COP Climate summits every year making headlines for the wrong reasons, namely for the political hassling and not making meaningful decisions, the world is still heading on a bad trajectory. It feels like we’re on a space ship heading for a highly dangerous asteroid in our path, that we could perfectly well avoid, and the commanders of the ship are arguing at the captain’s table on who twisted the wheel the wrong way and who will receive compensation for the loss of the craft, rather than shutting off engines and steering away. Young activists are very passionate about this, and are trying to get global leaders to start taking action – they’re mostly getting ignored, until it’s too late.

“People around the world want more rights, and protests are going off all over the place. Train drivers in the UK are striking for more pay and better hours; the NHS is on strike for similar things; film actors in the US are striking against the use of AI in films, which might take their jobs; in Iran, women’s rights protests are sparked after detained women died in police custody; in 2020, Black Lives Matter protests went off in the US after the death of George Floyd; people want to live in a fairer system. Where will this end?”

Which seems like a good way to round off this topic – where will it end?! I don’t know – I don’t have a TARDIS/Time-Turner/Magic Watch, much as I might like one. But, fun fact – we’re all time travellers, as we are not at the same time right now as when we were born. We’re all going into the future: who knows what might happen then?!

Hey Blog! This post is about the walking weekend I went on a couple of weekends ago!

Every year, the Scouts do a walking weekend. I did one last year, which I also wrote about. However, this year it was quite different. For starters, one of the Scout leaders had broken his fibula unexpectedly a few days in advance, so we were a leader down. Then, it was a lot colder than last year, so extra warm clothes were required. The walking weekend is a 15-mile hike through the Peak District, from Bakewell to Baslow, via a night stop at the Curbar Scout Hut. With only two leaders to run it, this was possible, if nothing went wrong. Nothing did, till the second day.

The first half of the walk, from Bakewell to Curbar, went well; we had good views, fast walking, a frosty start and then nice sunshine. All the ponds were frozen over, and we couldn’t break the ice using a large amount of stones and even a log. I found a horseshoe at one point – this is currently outside my bedroom door to ward off ill luck and look good. We passed through Eyam, the village where the 1666 plague carried off almost all inhabitants; we passed through what looked like Narnia, it was so frosty; we passed old mine shafts (the Peak District has been extensively worked for lead and stone); we found several icicles, hard and clear as glass, but wet in your hand; but there was no snow. We’d have to wait.

When we reached the hut, it was not yet dark, and we had a long time till dinner and even longer till bed. We were all sleeping in the hut, as we had one less leader – this was a blessing in the morning! Some of us played cards, some played D&D (I was DM for the first time – look for a former post on this subject), some helped cook the meal. We had a good time, but then, after dinner, it started snowing – not much, but snow. We went to bed early, for a Scout camp, and it was still snowing.

In the morning, we woke up to about four inches of snow – a total, and most welcome, surprise! We had breakfast (the usual camp kind, bacon butties with scrambled egg); and then, after the leaders had planned a whole new risk assessment taking into account the snow, we set off on a shortened and circular version of the original walk. Of course, we had snowball fights on the way, but were promised a big one when we got back. Up the hill, we were just going along the road when there was a great big crunch, and a car went straight through a wall and into the neighbouring field. None of us saw it happen, but we did see the leaders take off like a rocket to help with the crash. This changed plans yet again, and we went back to the scout hut. We did get a massive snowball fight on the way, though!

The walking weekend is always fun, and I hope to do many more similar things in the future!

Hey Blog! This week is another kind of review – one that I’ve never done before!

Last week we went to local restaurant/café Bridge House. It is a very good place to go if you want to have large and delicious breakfasts, fabulous drinks, and spectacular brunches. With friendly service and good food, it is definitely one of the top places to eat around us.

We used to go to a similar place called The Filling Station in Belper, which is run by the same people, and once Bridge House opened a few years ago, we knew it would be amazing too. Since then, we have been quite a few times, throughout the year, and have eaten in the back garden, the upstairs, and outside at the front. All times, it has been an enjoyable experience, and all times, we have had an excellent repast. We have taken friends and family to eat there, we have gone on our own; it is always top quality and very fun.

On Friday, it was rather chilly in the morning, and we went for a walk down through the wood. However, we carried on, and ended up near the café. Subsequently, we went in and had a very nice coffee and a cob. Christmas songs were playing, the heater was blowing in our direction (very welcome after a frosty walk!) and unusually, they had tables free – marvellous! This is the reason I am now writing this – I generally have to think back on what I’ve done in the week before deciding on a topic for the blog, but this time, we planned it in the café. It still took me a week to write it.

All in all, I think Bridge House is excellent. Presented in the table below:

Subject	Food quality	Food variety	Customer service	Interior décor	General	Total (100)
Points (20)	20	19	20	16	18	93

Home Ed in a Shed Café Rating: 93

To Bridge House – thanks very much, and I hope to come many times more!

Hey Blog! Sorry it’s been so long since the last instalment, but here it is – the next chapter of the story of the box!

The seaman’s treasure box

The seaman who had bought the box was an able-seaman on the ship Fortunus in the Royal Navy. He had bought the box for his sea-chest, as he was borrowing his grandfather’s, who had been a great friend of one of Nelson’s best commander’s relatives. When he got to the ship, he exchanged all the belongings from his grandfather’s chest into his new one, gave back the borrowed chest and made it so that he could sit on the new one if he wanted to. This was a thing most of the sailors did, as it saved stool space. He played checkers on it when the sea was calm enough, and once or twice singed it when dropping a match. His scrimshaw knife slipped a few times, and marked it. The box rounded the Horn a fair few times, and the sailor, who was soon promoted to 4^th lieutenant, transferred ship many times. Then, one day, a ship flying a flag not usually seen in those waters seemed to follow them. When it had got within hailing distance, it suddenly opened gun-ports and laid bullets in the planking. Some of the men on board were terrified, and let the pirates come on board, despite the other’s efforts to stop them.

The only money found on the ship was collectively 86 silver pieces. So these were taken, and the ship was also taken, along with some of the crew, for deck hands. The 4^th lieutenant was one. He was kept on deck, and had to man the ship and while he did this, he had a plan. Two other members of the crew were kept on deck with him, and together they agreed to turn the ship’s course towards somewhere they wanted her to go, namely, South Africa. But next day, the pirate captain turned the ship south, which was actually their original heading. The next night they couldn’t do it, and it was three days before the captain was not on deck, so they decide to head for Australia. But when they did it was a success. The ship ran aground just south of Perth, and the prisoners could easily break free. The lieutenant’s life was saved, in fact, by the box, for he floated to shore on it. They were welcomed in the manner shipwrecked sailors usually are, and most chose to go home. However, the box’s owner chose to stay, deciding to settle in Australia and live near the coast. Over the course of a few years, he married and found himself with a family, and decided he would give his children the box for their toys. This family were one of the last that this box would know, as they passed things down through the generations.

Hey Blog! This post is about the news and where we find it.

There are many ways to find out what is going on in the world: the radio in my bedroom, the newspaper through the front door, friends you meet, magazines, social media, (antisocial media?), the internet, local chit-chat, gossip and conversation. They all have different benefits, different downsides, etc. but it could be said that there are two main branches of information sourcing. News from primary sources is generally at a national level, formally expressed, covering a wide range of topics with little speculation, and very detailed; and the social secondary sourced is generally passed person to person, at a community-level, informally presented, containing lots of speculation and often quite vague.

Though I am mostly aware of the news from national sources, be it what presenters eat for breakfast or the current state of the economy, during the recent bout of flooding a few weeks ago in the local area, I saw the local-level side as there was a lot of random information being thrown about as to the extent of the floodwater. This was very inexact and you could mostly only trust what you knew and saw. However, there are some places where trust in media at all is very low, mostly when the media of that place is controlled, censored, or biased. Propaganda, misinformation and disinformation, all under the infamous heading “Fake News”, run riot and harm the trustworthy news sources. Ultimately, it’s all down to how people react. Some truths are not very pleasant, but they are the truth, and we need to accept and move on. The news is linked to us, the people, as we are the ones who make the choices and determine what happens. It’s up to us.

Of course, the most important news you need to catch up with is this blog, so keep looking out for posts!

Hey Blog! This post is all about science.

I’m not your typical mad scientist; I don’t have crazy white hair, a secret lab and a bunch of test tubes stuck into a pocket; but all the same I do like a little bit of science. A lot, actually. E=mc², s=d/t, etc. are all very interesting to me; I like condensing a lot of knowledge into a simple formula and discovering the laws of the universe. There are apparently three basic sciences: biology, chemistry and physics. I am not doing a science class for any single one of these at the moment, but we have discussed them, and of the classes I am doing, physics is probably my favourite, followed by chemistry. However, science as a whole is more interesting to me, as one area relates to all the others – studying biology is useless without knowing biological processes, which means you need to learn chemistry, and studying chemical elements is useless without knowing how they react, which means you need to learn physics. However, what defines a science?

All knowledge is learning and almost all academic learning (there are other kinds) is either arts, language, humanities, maths or science. Physics is reputedly “maths with toys” according to Mum’s old maths teacher, though! As such, science is one of the largest branches of learning, and one of the very few where there are ‘right answers’. This is because science explains things in consistent patterns, with rules that cannot be broken, and if a we are given a statement produced by science it is either correct, however unlikely, or the scientist has made a mistake. You can’t break the law of gravity, for example; even if you’re flying on a broomstick, you must be producing drag which the broomstick is countering by magical lift. And the energy for that lift must be coming from somewhere, as we are in a closed system, being in the universe, and as Newton said, “within a closed system nothing can be created or destroyed, only change state” – including energy. As I said above, I love the idea of discovering these little gems which demonstrate all the info in one package, which could be why I like the next thing on the list.

The Periodic Table is The Essential Tool in chemistry. Someone I know was asking for help with some homework questions on her WhatsApp status, so I sent her a message saying “Check your periodic table!”. That’s how useful it is; it will explain almost every chemical question as the arrangement of the elements within will show patterns you wouldn’t have suspected. The most amazing thing about it was that it was constructed before half the elements were discovered. Scientists had long wanted to put all the elements in a table to show how they worked, but there was no pattern to follow. Then Dimitri Mendeleev had a dream, and came up with the idea of leaving gaps for elements that might not be discovered yet. It worked. Every single element discovered since has been predicted by Mendeleev, and he has never been proved wrong…

On to the science classes I am doing now. For a few weeks I have been doing online sessions with Sparking Stem, which must be really good as they have been able to get me to write up my experiments afterwards, of my own choosing – which nothing else has been able to get me to do. They have a lot of information, and an experiment or two, the most recent one has been on the different forms of energy, for example. However, this is not the only thing I do for science. There is Theatre of Science; free science lessons with crazy experiments run by someone with the proper eclectic scientist personality, with the Science Alliance, Theatre of Science’s following, of which I am automatically a member. Both of these have a different vibe, but both are awesome!

Finally, what future do I have with science? Well, it is on my list of things I would consider doing.  I may already be too tall for an astronaut; though there are many kinds of science, so I don’t know which kind would interest me most. Science will always remain intriguing to me, whatever happens, and I hope never to stop exploring its possibilities.

Hey Blog! Last Thursday I went to an amazing event which is only the start of what looks to be a very interesting project!

The Midlands Makers Challenge is an initiative which has run for a few years now, with the aim of getting young people to think about climate (in)action and come up with solutions for problems. Of course, this is something that sounded absolutely great for me, and so Mum managed to orchestrate two teams to get together. Mum has a lot of experience at doing this – she set up the Eco Group a few years ago, and this is a new opportunity for the members, and also a few new people. It will take a long time, as it has a lot of aspects to it, but to start, we had a day out to get to know the brief, the challenge, and some more about everything.

There are hopefully two home ed teams, I don’t know which team I am in yet due to people dropping out at the last minute. Both teams came to the event in Derby, one of the places where the challenge is based. Unfortunately, the Silk Mill (or Museum of Making) where it is being run from, got flooded in the latest episode of flooding, along with Dad’s work and some of the rest of Derby. This has resulted in the first day with the project organisers being in the Museum and Art Gallery. Still, it was a very enjoyable day.

We had to go in early because there was not enough time after my Environmental Management class to get into Derby on time. Therefore, I had to do the class in Derby. The one remotely interesting outcome of this was that I decided I am never going to wear ear buds again! But after this it was quick march to the Museum. Almost everyone else was there, so we then went round to the room it was happening in. There were three tables, for the two teams and the parents, and after sitting down we did the first thing on the list. This was to make an animal out of plasticine. The team I was in made a creature with a Peregrine Falcon head, Cheetah body, Pig tail, and Pangolin feet. If you’ve never heard of a pangolin, it isn’t because it’s a made-up creature, the pangolin is the only scaled mammal in the world, the most illegally trafficked mammal in the world (their scales are sold for traditional medicine) and one of the cutest animals on the planet! They’re one of my favourite animals, but a friend who also likes them suggested the feet idea, not me. The animal challenge was just a warm up, so we soon got into the thick of things…

After a very nice lunch, we got to the brief. We were told the background for the challenge and further information, and were asked to try and design something to solve a water-related problem. My team made an entire river valley, with a beaver dam at the top, a water diverter, a reservoir and a pump to lift the water – all out of a few random materials on a table. This was a representation, not a prototype. One team made a sponge, out of a single square block, which would be put into pavements to soak up the water when it rained, then release it slowly when the flood went down. Quite clever – they didn’t have to make anything at all!

After this step, we put down what we thought about climate change. For some reason, most of my friends don’t like speaking out at events like this, so I was left to explain everything we did. This wasn’t a problem for me, and I did quite a good speech at this point, on climate change. Afterwards, I regretted not recording it, but perhaps I’m not quite as eloquent as Chris Packham yet! Once we had done this, we had a think about the UN sustainable development goals, and then reworked our former designs. There are 17 of the goals in total, of which two directly relate to water and most of the others are in some way linked to it. ‘Life Below Water’ and ‘Clean Water and Sanitation’ both were contemplated, and while we do not yet know what we are doing for our final project, as this will take time and thought to complete, we have got some ideas. For example, giant dehumidifiers, water-recycling showers, astronaut toilets and a water-powered car were all discussed. My team added a water-recycling shower in a small house along the valley we had made earlier. This might be our final design, or it could be something else entirely. Either way, I know this project is going to be fun!

Hey Blog! Woooooo, it’s the Hallowe’en special!

We all know this slightly creepy and dangerous time of year. The one where pumpkins are highly priced in shops, sweets for trick-or-treaters are at a premium, and piles of single-use plastic tat in the shape of skulls, bones, spiders, assorted undead and other evil creatures fill the shelves… Oh, so you don’t think of it like that? Well, all festivals have these piles of tat during them – most of which are only used for one year. It’s very wasteful. And fake cobwebs snare birds, and pollutes if it flies away in an October gale. But the other side of Hallowe’en is spooky and mysterious.

Few people continue to use the apostrophe which reveals its past – as All Hallow’s Eve, the eve of All Saints’ Day. But this Christian festival is only one in a long line of festivals of this type that have been going on in October for a very long time. The Dia de los Muertos, better known as the Day of the Dead, is a Mexican festival where the ancestors rise again. Samhain is a pagan festival where fires are lit, also at this time of year. There are Indian festivals as well at this time. The Chinese have a ghost month (though it’s in August – still, there’s only September between them). Why do all these celebrations happen at the similar times? Is it something that happened before we spread across the planet and all the different ones used to be the same? Or is it that we all as humans felt the same things at the point in the year? Christmas & midwinter have associate happenings across cultures with it too. So has midsummer. Your guess is as good as mine.

Hallowe’en traditions include putting out pumpkins and revering the dead. The latter is more international, but the former is definitely a western culture. It comes from the jack-o-lanterns which scared away evil spirits. However, if you go on the theory that the gates to the land of the dead are open, there are good ghosts as well as bad ghosts there, so don’t get too scared. However, if it’s the gates of hell, as in the Chinese folklore, then yes there’s only bad ghosts in there!

More recently, it’s changed a lot. From a veiled, ghostly day, it’s now commercialised and is all about the parties. There are occasional reminders of the spooky side. For example, famous conjuror Harry Houdini died on Hallowe’en and has reportedly been trying to send a message from the dead ever since, if it’s possible. He hasn’t managed it yet. You-know-who (at least, if you’ve read Harry Potter you know) killed Harry’s parents on the 31^st of October. Nearly everything has a Hallowe’en special around this time – including, it seems, Home Ed in a Shed!

Which is a good way to round off this post. Watch out for witches, warlocks, flying gremlins, pumpkins, scarecrows, ghosts, skeletons, vampires, etc. and have a happy Hallowe’en!

Hey Blog! This week I’m going to try not to tie you all up in knots!

A not is knot just – sorry, restart – a knot is not just any old twist of rope. Knotsmithing is an art. You have to have the knowledge of what secures the rope to something else, and while most people can do the overhand and reef, that’s about as far as it gets. All Scouts should be able to do the reef knot at least, considering it features on the World Scout Badge. However, some people take it a little further, and learn more advanced knots. Then you get on to really top-class knots, which I’m still working on. I have a small but effective knot vocabulary, to which I occasionally add new ones. Last week I learnt the Turk’s Head and the Rolling Hitch, for example.

As for why I like knots, it’s because it’s versatile, being both a crucial survival skill and a decorative pastime; it’s a good way to show a bit of skill; and most of all, it’s really fun!

A collection of my knots – what kind of knot and what they’re used for:

Beginner’s level

• Reef knot – one of the most basic and yet useful. Used when safety is not paramount but you need to tie something up (parcels, etc.). Named by sailors because they used it for reefing sails.
• Sheet bend – another useful bend, or joining knot. Another one with a nautical name – sailors tied sheets (ropes attached to sails) with it. Use in similar circumstances to reef, but maybe more secure and more show-off.
• Clove hitch – a simple hitch (attachment knot). Not vital safety, but good for lashing sticks together over the campfire.
• Round turn and two half-hitches – another hitch, also useful, for tying boats up among other things.
• Figure-of-8 – an elegant stopper knot. Generally nice to know.
• Shoe bow – you tie your shoelaces loads of times over your life – unless you’re a Velcro person. I’m a shoelace person. I also found a better way to tie, with two bands instead of one over the two loops. This has prevented me from having to retie them five times on one walk.

Intermediate level

• Carrick bend – a more decorative and secure ‘bend’ knot. Again, can be used as a substitute for reef knot situations.
• Bowline – indispensable, lifesaver, non-binding noose, and top knot to know. Use for clifftop rescues, poaching, tree climbing, and more.
• Poacher’s noose – a knot for capturing things. Not necessary unless you’re hunting for survival, but good for pranking trick-or-treaters!
• Fisherman’s knot – a bend that joins two ropes in a knot that will outlast the rope itself. Mostly used in climbing as a Prusik knot.
• Slip knot – Binding noose. Similar to Hangman’s noose, but I won’t go into that. More sedately used in casting on while knitting.
• Square & Tripod Lashings – knots to join poles together. One forms a cross (Square), the other joins three side-by-side. Good for picture frames, or cooking pots.
• Various types of quick-releasing hitch – all for quickly untying any horse, boat, or other suspect getaway vehicle, or releasing traps from the ceiling.
• Rolling hitch – a knot that doesn’t slide along another rope. I learnt this one today and am rather proud of it. Used when towing boats, etc.

Advanced level

• Monkey’s Fist – one of the top knots for bragger’s rights, used in keyrings, heave-lines, stoppers, and for whacking things with a rope ball. Takes a while to tighten. Much easier with large, stiffer rope.
• Turk’s Head – used for woggles, paracord poppies and decorative bands. Rather complex but really beautiful and obvious once you get it.
• Alpine Butterfly Loop – a climber’s knot for ziplines, harness attachments, and highwire antics. Maybe a bit tricky, but very elegant.

Clockwise from top left: Sheet bend, Figure of 8, Carrick Bend, Poacher’s Noose, Bowline, Monkey’s Fist, Turk’s Head, Reef Knot, Alpine Butterfly Loop, Rolling Hitch, Fisherman’s Knot.

Now that I’ve informed you about a few knots, you might like to try your own – it’s remarkably satisfying. And who knows, if you get yourself in a situation when the Air Ambulance has to rescue you, at least you know how to tie yourself onto the winch. I recommend 50 knots you need to know, by Marty Allen – this book has taught me a good few. It’s one of the most valuable life skills, and one of the most enjoyable.

Hey Blog! It’s time for another book review, and this one is about a trilogy that might just be one of the best I’ve ever read!

The His Dark Materials series, by Philip Pullman, is, to put it mildly, absolutely brilliant. Very few books I’ve read make it to the top list instantly. These did. They are an incredible mix of sci-fi, fantasy, philosophy, religion, and growing up. I don’t think you could get another story like it. It is set in a multiverse, with “as many [worlds] as there are, no one would have time to find out”, and covers a prophesy heard in the northern lights of a girl whose destiny would be to bring an end to destiny; the culmination of the war in heaven; and the second play of the Garden of Eden. One of the protagonists, Lyra, is in fact, the second Eve. But here, temptation, which created the mysterious particle of Dust and all thoughts after puberty, is a good thing, as adult emotions, consciousness and above all, love, are created by and are the only things which keep the Dust alive. Dust, I feel, is a bit like the Force from Star Wars, as it is created by and sustains living things; in this world we know it as Dark Matter, a particle nigh-impossible to detect which is probably responsible for the universe staying in one piece. Of course, in the multiverse, time splits the universes by different choices being made, which is why we don’t all live in Lyra’s world.

The plot of the first book, Northern Lights starts in an Oxford college in another world, like this, but very different. The biggest difference is that every human has an animal-shaped soul, or dæmon, who is linked to them; during childhood their dæmon can change shape but settles when they grow up. There are a lot more differences between the worlds in the multiverse, and it is later said “perhaps there was only one world after all, which spent its time dreaming of all the others,” and that “when … different things happen the two worlds split apart.” Lyra, a girl who has spent her life living in the college, and her dæmon Pantalaimon, decides to spy on a meeting between the master and her uncle Asriel, manging to save her uncle’s life by stopping him being poisoned. After some even more complicated circumstances, it becomes apparent that children are being abducted, slowly, all over the country. Lyra also meets the glamorous lady Mrs. Coulter, who invites her to stay. One of Lyra’s friends gets kidnaped, and the master secretly gives her an alethiometer – one of six, a golden device that answers your questions. This is one of those things without which the rest of the story wouldn’t exist, as only through reading it does Lyra know what to do. Soon after coming to stay with Mrs. Coulter, she realises she is actually staying with the very lady who leads the kidnapers, and runs away.

At this point, Lyra encounters the canal-boaters, or gyptians, who take her in, before they decide what to do. She discovers she is the daughter of her ‘uncle’ Asriel and Mrs. Coulter – totally to her surprise (WHY do all of these books start with a child who doesn’t know who their parents are?!), and also realises she can read the alethiometer automatically. Not long after this, she and a few of her newfound friends set sail to the north to rescue the captive children – from a fate unthought of and far more horrible than any they could have expected.

If you’re wondering what happens, (chorus please) read the book. However, I can assure you she does survive into book two, The Subtle Knife. This one starts with Will, from our world, who wanders through a window in the multiverse and ends up meeting Lyra and bearing the Subtle Knife, which can cut anything and everything and open windows between worlds. It is really unparalleled. I would describe it as what would happen if god was evil, dark matter was conscious, you could find the truth by asking an instrument, and a knife could create portals. It’s one of the best series I’ve ever read, with one of the most detailed and complex plots; seriously, it is a GOOD BOOK!