Tings are falling apart in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are faltering and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's last excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography maps on to that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in creature form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are caught and drinks is drunk, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still distinctly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of austere, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh power to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which seems somehow to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by some as a tradeable good, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
As in the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the original series, Lyra's actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably entwined with the future of the universe. Her private journey to reunite with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a broader war with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities typically do, is attempting to stifle freedom of reason, innovation and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual fissures in the fabric of the Earth's air: gateways that appear to open into different dimensions. One such opening seems to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these windows as a threat to the religion's doctrine and aims to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict logic and back to feeling, however, her belief that these sites must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is in some way essential – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic conflict between purity and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
