Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in animal form; where the skies are populated with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and drinks is drunk, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the church's governing body, and is set on using his newfound authority to extend the church's rule. Another protagonist, who saved young the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The substance is viewed by some as a tradeable product, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inseparably connected with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. As in the original series, her choices and her path are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe. Her private journey to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a larger conflict with an oppressive system which, as such authorities always have, is striving to stifle freedom of reason, innovation and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book opens with the discovery of a collection of strange cracks in the structure of the Earth's air: gateways that look to lead to different dimensions. An example of a portal seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these windows as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to move from strict logic and return to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic tussle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
