Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are ridden and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound power to broaden the church's rule. A key character, who saved young Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the source of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from that area. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a marketable good, by different parties as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its source, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply entwined with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the fate of the universe. Her private quest to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the central struggle in a broader battle with an oppressive system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to suppress independence of thinking, creativity and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the discovery of a set of curious fissures in the makeup of the planet's air: windows that appear to lead to different dimensions. An example of a portal appears to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these openings as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from strict rationalism and back to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and their value is somehow vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
