Tings are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape maps on to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, essences in creature form; where the skies are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and beverages is sipped, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the spiky and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to depart in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound influence to extend the institution's dominium. A key character, who saved baby the heroine to security along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial upheaval rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by various factions as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Like the original series, Lyra's actions and her path are revealed to be inseparably linked with the fate of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the central conflict in a wider conflict with an oppressive government which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The story begins with the finding of a collection of strange fissures in the makeup of the world's sky: gateways that seem to give on to alternate realities. An example of a portal seems to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible reason and return to feeling, however, her conviction that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously vital – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between purity and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
