Tings are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are weakening and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in animal form; where the heavens are populated with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and tea is consumed, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to expand the church's rule. A key character, who saved infant Lyra to refuge along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to learn more about his plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which appears in some way to be the source of a social and financial crisis emanating out from that area. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable good, by different parties as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. As in the original series, Lyra's actions and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm. Her individual quest to reunite with her soul and recover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a broader conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to suppress autonomy of reason, creativity and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the finding of a collection of strange fissures in the makeup of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that look to give on to alternate realities. An example of a opening manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these portals as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict reason and return to instinct, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is somehow essential – increases. "The substance, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic conflict between purity and knowledge is established.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
