Things are falling apart in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are caught and tea is sipped, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and determined heroine of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, warier, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of leader of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the institution's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued infant the heroine to security along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which manifests in some way to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial good, by others as a research-based or spiritual miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the fate of the world. Her individual journey to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the primary conflict in a broader battle with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress freedom of thought, creativity and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the finding of a series of strange cracks in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that seem to lead to other worlds. An example of a opening seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its head, classifies these windows as a threat to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict reason and revert to instinct, however, her belief that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is in some way crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic conflict between naivety and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
