Things are falling apart in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are deteriorating and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are ridden and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the sharp and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh influence to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which appears somehow to be the source of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The substance is regarded by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – 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 removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In this final book, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her path are shown to be deeply linked with the future of the world. Her personal journey to reconnect with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a broader conflict with an oppressive system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to suppress independence of thought, originality and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the unveiling of a collection of strange cracks in the structure of the planet's air: gateways that seem to give on to different dimensions. A particular opening seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with its leader at its helm, labels these portals as a threat to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict reason and back to intuition, yet, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and their value is in some way vital – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean conflict between purity and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the