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Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are weakening and collapsing."

Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey

Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and beverages is sipped, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and persistent main character of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Converging Storylines

Pan's decision to go off in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound power to expand the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young the heroine to security along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and economic upheaval rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by others as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.

As in the first series, the heroine's actions, and her future, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the future of the world

In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, her actions and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her personal mission to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the key conflict in a broader war with an oppressive government which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of reason, innovation and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.

Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts

The book begins with the discovery of a series of strange cracks in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: portals that look to give on to other worlds. One such portal manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, labels these portals as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and return to intuition, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a Blakean tussle between naivety and maturity is prepared.

Narrative Pacing and Character Development

At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the