Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels this final volume, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are taken and tea is drunk, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's controlling power, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to broaden the church's rule. Another protagonist, who saved baby the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about his aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which seems somehow to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by various factions as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply linked with the fate of the realm
In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world. Her individual mission to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key conflict in a wider conflict with an controlling regime which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to quell freedom of reason, innovation and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the discovery of a collection of unusual fissures in the makeup of the planet's sky: portals that look to open into alternate realities. A particular opening appears to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these portals as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid rationalism and return to instinct, however, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously essential – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic struggle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
