Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that animates the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are caught and tea is sipped, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and persistent heroine of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more careful, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to the city to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which seems somehow to be the source of a social and financial upheaval rippling out from the region. The substance is regarded by various factions as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.
As in the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the fate of the realm
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the original series, Lyra's actions and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm. Her personal mission to reconnect with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an controlling regime which, as these systems always have, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thinking, creativity and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story opens with the unveiling of a set of curious cracks in the makeup of the planet's sky: windows that appear to lead to different dimensions. An example of a window manifests to be the point of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these windows as a threat to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible reason and revert to intuition, however, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow essential – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between innocence and experience is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
