Tings are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last excursion into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first revealed in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the heavens are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and tea is drunk, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the spiky and determined heroine of the earlier books, but older, sadder, warier, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of austere, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. The antagonist – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound authority to expand the church's control. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to the city to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems somehow to be the source of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by various factions as a commercial good, by others as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the original series, her choices and her fate are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world. Her private journey to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the central struggle in a broader conflict with an oppressive system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to quell autonomy of thinking, creativity and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book starts with the finding of a set of strange cracks in the makeup of the Earth's air: portals that look to give on to alternate realities. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its helm, classifies these windows as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict rationalism and return to intuition, however, her conviction that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is somehow essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
