Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are caught and tea is consumed, and mature professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his fresh authority to extend the church's rule. A key character, who carried baby the heroine to security along a swollen Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to learn more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance rippling out from that area. The extract is regarded by some as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her destiny are shown to be inseparably woven with the future of the world. Her individual mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the central conflict in a larger war with an oppressive system which, as these systems typically do, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thought, innovation and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the finding of a set of unusual cracks in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: portals that appear to open into alternate realities. One such portal seems to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, labels these openings as a challenge to the church's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid rationalism and revert to intuition, however, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
