Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and tea is sipped, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the spiky and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in quest of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the authority's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh power to expand the church's dominium. A key character, who rescued baby Lyra to security along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable botanical extract which seems somehow to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by some as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they merge. Like the original series, her movements and her fate are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the realm. Her individual quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a wider war with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, originality and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a set of unusual cracks in the fabric of the Earth's air: windows that appear to lead to other worlds. An example of a window appears to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid reason and revert to feeling, however, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean conflict between purity and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
