Tings are collapsing in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates this final volume, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are ridden and drinks is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and determined main character of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, warier, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the religion's control. A key character, who rescued young Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which appears somehow to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from the region. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the fate of the world. Her personal journey to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a larger battle with an controlling system which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to stifle independence of thinking, innovation and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book opens with the unveiling of a collection of unusual cracks in the structure of the planet's sky: windows that look to give on to alternate realities. An example of a portal seems to be the point of the highly contested botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid reason and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously vital – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic conflict between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
