Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are weakening and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed three decades past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, buses are ridden and beverages is consumed, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more careful, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of austere, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who saved baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from that area. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the first series, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her path are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her personal quest to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the key conflict in a larger battle with an authoritarian government which, as these systems typically do, is striving to quell autonomy of reason, creativity and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the unveiling of a set of strange cracks in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: windows that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular window manifests to be the source of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible logic and revert to feeling, yet, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and their value is in some way vital – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic tussle between innocence and experience is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
