Tings are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are faltering and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are ridden and beverages is consumed, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby the heroine to security along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a social and financial crisis emanating out from that area. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are shown to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Like the original series, her movements and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm. Her personal mission to reconnect with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an controlling government which, as such regimes always have, is striving to suppress freedom of thought, innovation and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story begins with the finding of a collection of strange cracks in the makeup of the planet's sky: gateways that look to give on to different dimensions. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, designates these portals as a challenge to the church's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid logic and back to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic conflict between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
