Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, the author's final foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the air are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are caught and beverages is sipped, and mature academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and determined main character of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to go off in search of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the religion's rule. A key character, who saved young Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from that area. The extract is regarded by various factions as a marketable commodity, by others as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is escalating in importance.
As in the original trilogy, Lyra's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her fate are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the realm. Her private mission to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the primary battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive government which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to stifle freedom of thinking, originality and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the discovery of a series of curious openings in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular portal appears to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, classifies these openings as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way essential – increases. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic conflict between innocence and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
