Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and tea is sipped, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to go off in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound power to expand the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to safety along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to discover more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and economic crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a tradeable product, by others as a empirical or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. As in the original series, the protagonist's choices and her path are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her private quest to rejoin with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the key conflict in a wider battle with an oppressive regime which, as these systems always have, is seeking to suppress independence of thought, creativity and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a series of strange cracks in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that appear to open into different dimensions. An example of a opening appears to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the church's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible rationalism and return to instinct, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously essential – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a poetic tussle between purity and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
