Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's final excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and drinks is consumed, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and determined heroine of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of austere, bureaucratic evil – 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 manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound authority to broaden the church's control. Another protagonist, who carried young the heroine to refuge along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by some as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be deeply linked with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they converge. As in the first trilogy, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm. Her private journey to reunite with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the key conflict in a wider conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to quell independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel opens with the unveiling of a collection of curious cracks in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that look to give on to different dimensions. One such portal appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between innocence and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
