Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from states, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in beast form; where the skies are populated with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and beverages is drunk, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to extend the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued young the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious botanical extract which seems somehow to be the source of a social and financial crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is seen by various factions as a marketable product, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they merge. Like the original series, the protagonist's actions and her fate are revealed to be inextricably woven with the fate of the universe. Her personal journey to reconnect with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the central conflict in a larger battle with an controlling regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to quell freedom of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The novel starts with the unveiling of a set of curious cracks in the fabric of the planet's air: gateways that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these openings as a threat to the church's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict rationalism and back to intuition, yet, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is in some way vital – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical tussle between innocence and experience is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
