Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, the author's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in creature form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and beverages is consumed, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound power to expand the institution's rule. A key character, who carried infant Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis emanating out from that area. The oil is viewed by some as a tradeable commodity, by others as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Similar to the original series, Lyra's choices and her fate are revealed to be deeply woven with the destiny of the universe. Her private quest to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider war with an controlling regime which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to stifle independence of thinking, creativity and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual fissures in the structure of the world's air: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular window seems to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its helm, designates these openings as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict logic and return to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is in some way crucial – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between innocence and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
