Tings are unraveling in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and tea is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to expand the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried young the heroine to refuge along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from the region. The extract is regarded by some as a marketable product, by others as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her path are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world. Her personal journey to reunite with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the key battleground in a wider war with an oppressive system which, as these systems always have, is seeking to suppress autonomy of reason, innovation and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel begins with the finding of a set of strange openings in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: windows that seem to open into alternate realities. A particular opening manifests to be the point of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its head, classifies these windows as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict logic and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they offer is in some way essential – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between innocence and experience is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
