Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, the author's last excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but below, buses are ridden and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, warier, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the church's dominium. A key character, who rescued young the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the source of a social and economic crisis spreading out from the region. The oil is viewed by some as a commercial product, by others as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, her movements and her destiny are revealed to be deeply woven with the destiny of the world. Her individual mission to reconnect with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the central struggle in a broader conflict with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to stifle freedom of reason, innovation and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The story opens with the unveiling of a collection of curious openings in the makeup of the Earth's air: windows that appear to open into alternate realities. One such window seems to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its head, labels these portals as a threat to the church's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible rationalism and revert to intuition, yet, her conviction that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic conflict between naivety and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
