Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, the author's final foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and determined heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of strict, bureaucratic malice – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound power to expand the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who carried young Lyra to refuge along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis spreading out from the region. The substance is regarded by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Like the first trilogy, her actions and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably woven with the fate of the world. Her individual quest to rejoin with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a larger conflict with an controlling system which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to quell autonomy of thought, creativity and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story begins with the unveiling of a set of strange cracks in the fabric of the world's sky: gateways that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular opening seems to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to move from strict reason and return to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and their value is in some way crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a Blakean tussle between innocence and experience is established.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
