Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the air are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and tea is sipped, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the institution's control. A key character, who carried young Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is viewed by various factions as a commercial product, by different parties as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the original series, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably woven with the future of the universe. Her personal journey to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a broader battle with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to quell independence of thinking, originality and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The novel starts with the unveiling of a set of strange openings in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: windows that appear to lead to different dimensions. An example of a window appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these portals as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to intuition, however, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical conflict between purity and maturity is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
