Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are ridden and drinks is consumed, and older professors carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to expand the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued infant the heroine to security along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious botanical extract which manifests in some way to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The oil is regarded by some as a commercial good, by others as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply connected with the fate of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran largely in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, her movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably entwined with the future of the realm. Her personal journey to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a wider war with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to stifle autonomy of thought, originality and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the discovery of a set of strange cracks in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: portals that look to open into other worlds. A particular opening manifests to be the point of the highly contested botanical substance. The church, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these openings as a problem to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict reason and back to instinct, yet, her conviction that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical tussle between innocence and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
