Tings are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and solid are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels the concluding book, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are caught and drinks is sipped, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and danger on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh authority to expand the church's dominium. A key character, who carried young Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about his plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial disturbance spreading out from that area. The substance is regarded by some as a marketable good, by others as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably connected with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are revealed to be deeply woven with the fate of the universe. Her private journey to reunite with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the key conflict in a larger conflict with an controlling system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to suppress independence of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book starts with the discovery of a series of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that look to give on to different dimensions. An example of a portal appears to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its head, designates these openings as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible logic and return to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical conflict between naivety and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
