Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, the author's last venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, buses are taken and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to go off in search of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his recently acquired power to expand the religion's control. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to security along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to the city to discover more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The substance is regarded by some as a commercial product, by others as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of its source, its significance, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they come together. As in the first trilogy, her movements and her path are unveiled to be deeply woven with the fate of the realm. Her personal quest to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to suppress autonomy of thought, creativity and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story begins with the discovery of a set of curious cracks in the structure of the world's sky: windows that appear to lead to alternate realities. A particular window manifests to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its leadership, designates these portals as a problem to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to feeling, however, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is somehow vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic tussle between purity and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
