Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are weakening and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and beverages is drunk, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to go off in search 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 incitements of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh power to broaden the church's control. A key character, who saved young Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The oil is regarded by some as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her fate are revealed to be deeply linked with the future of the universe. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her vision becomes the central struggle in a wider battle with an oppressive regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to quell freedom of thinking, creativity and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the finding of a series of strange fissures in the fabric of the planet's air: gateways that look to lead to different dimensions. An example of a opening appears to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these openings as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from strict logic and return to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is in some way essential – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a Blakean tussle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
