Tings are falling apart in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the hands of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels this final volume, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's final venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, buses are caught and tea is drunk, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, 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 appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the church's dominium. A key character, who rescued young the heroine to security along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to learn more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which appears somehow to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by others as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply connected with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, her choices and her fate are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm. Her personal journey to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key struggle in a wider battle with an oppressive system which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to quell autonomy of reason, innovation and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the discovery of a series of curious fissures in the fabric of the planet's sky: portals that look to give on to alternate realities. One such opening appears to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these windows as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid reason and revert to feeling, yet, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between purity and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
