Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are weakening and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, the author's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the skies are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are caught and tea is sipped, and older professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his newfound influence to expand the institution's control. A key character, who rescued young Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to find out more about his aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and costly essential oil which manifests somehow to be the origin of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable product, by others as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to the first trilogy, her movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe. Her individual journey to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her imagination becomes the key conflict in a wider war with an controlling regime which, as these systems typically do, is striving to quell freedom of reason, innovation and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the unveiling of a collection of curious fissures in the structure of the Earth's atmosphere: windows that look to lead to other worlds. An example of a window appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and back to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and their value is in some way essential – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean conflict between purity and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
