Tings are unraveling in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in creature form; where the skies are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are caught and drinks is consumed, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the religion's control. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is assigned to the city to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by some as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its significance, and if it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Like the original series, Lyra's movements and her path are shown to be inseparably woven with the future of the realm. Her individual quest to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a broader conflict with an controlling system which, as such regimes always have, is striving to quell autonomy of thought, innovation and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story starts with the finding of a set of unusual openings in the makeup of the Earth's sky: portals that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular window seems to be the source of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these portals as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict rationalism and return to feeling, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic struggle between naivety and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
