Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, the author's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the skies are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and beverages is consumed, and older professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a child in the original 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 distinctly the sharp and determined main character of the previous installments, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh authority to expand the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which appears somehow to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from the region. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the fate of the realm. Her personal mission to reconnect with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a larger battle with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems always have, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the finding of a collection of curious openings in the makeup of the planet's sky: windows that seem to give on to different dimensions. A particular window manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid reason and back to intuition, yet, her belief that these places must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is in some way vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a poetic conflict between innocence and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
