Tings are collapsing in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives this final volume, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but older, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh influence to broaden the religion's dominium. A key character, who rescued young the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to Geneva to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial disturbance spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by some as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, the heroine's actions, and her future, are shown to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Like the original series, Lyra's actions and her fate are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe. Her private journey to reunite with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key battleground in a larger conflict with an oppressive government which, as such regimes always have, is striving to stifle independence of thinking, innovation and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the unveiling of a set of curious fissures in the makeup of the planet's air: portals that seem to open into different dimensions. An example of a portal seems to be the source of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from strict rationalism and back to intuition, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is somehow crucial – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic conflict between purity and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
