Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are weakening and failing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's final excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his newfound authority to expand the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which manifests somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from that area. The substance is viewed by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her actions and her path are revealed to be inseparably woven with the future of the universe. Her private quest to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the central conflict in a larger conflict with an oppressive system which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to suppress autonomy of thought, originality and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the discovery of a set of curious fissures in the makeup of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that seem to open into alternate realities. One such opening appears to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The church, with its leader at its leadership, labels these windows as a threat to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a poetic struggle between naivety and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
