Tings are collapsing in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying 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 offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are taken and tea is consumed, and older scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, administrative evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the institution's rule. A key character, who rescued infant the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which seems somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is seen by some as a tradeable good, by others as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of its source, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm
In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Like the original series, her movements and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably woven with the future of the universe. Her private mission to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a broader war with an oppressive system which, as such authorities always have, is striving to suppress independence of thinking, creativity and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the discovery of a set of curious fissures in the structure of the world's air: gateways that look to lead to alternate realities. A particular opening seems to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and aims to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and return to instinct, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and what they provide is in some way crucial – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and maturity is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
