Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, the author's final excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the heavens are filled with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and drinks is sipped, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more careful, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of austere, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh authority to extend the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried young Lyra to safety along a swollen river as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from the region. The extract is regarded by some as a commercial good, by others as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her fate are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world. Her individual journey to reunite with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader battle with an controlling regime which, as these systems typically do, is striving to suppress autonomy of thought, originality and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story starts with the discovery of a set of curious openings in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that appear to open into different dimensions. An example of a portal seems to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the church's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic conflict between naivety and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
