Things are falling apart in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and failing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the heavens are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, buses are taken and drinks is drunk, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the spiky and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, warier, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, administrative evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the church's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to extend the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, 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 espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to discover more about his aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which manifests somehow to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval rippling out from the region. The substance is viewed by some as a tradeable good, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her path are revealed to be inextricably woven with the destiny of the universe. Her individual mission to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the primary battleground in a larger conflict with an controlling system which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to suppress freedom of thinking, originality and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The story begins with the unveiling of a collection of strange fissures in the fabric of the world's sky: windows that appear to give on to other worlds. One such portal appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with its leader at its head, classifies these windows as a challenge to the church's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid rationalism and back to instinct, yet, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
