Tings are unraveling in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in beast form; where the skies are populated with witches and gryphons, but underneath, transports are ridden and tea is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and persistent heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of rigid, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh power to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who saved baby the heroine to security along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which seems in some way to be the origin of a social and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The oil is regarded by some as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the realm
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they converge. As in the first trilogy, her movements and her fate are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe. Her personal quest to reconnect with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the primary battleground in a broader conflict with an authoritarian government which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to suppress freedom of thought, originality and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a series of unusual cracks in the structure of the planet's air: gateways that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular opening seems to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict logic and revert to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is somehow vital – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic struggle between naivety and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
