Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, buses are taken and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but older, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his newfound authority to expand the religion's control. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to learn more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which seems in some way to be the source of a societal and financial crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by others as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by others still – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply connected with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her movements and her fate are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world. Her individual journey to reconnect with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the central struggle in a wider conflict with an oppressive government which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to quell autonomy of thinking, innovation and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the unveiling of a collection of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's sky: portals that appear to give on to different dimensions. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its helm, designates these openings as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict logic and revert to feeling, however, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow vital – increases. "Dust, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and knowledge is set.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
