Tings are collapsing in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says trader a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the heavens are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are caught and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh authority to expand the religion's control. A key character, who carried baby the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The substance is seen by some as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its source, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her path are shown to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world. Her individual mission to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the key struggle in a wider battle with an oppressive system which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, originality and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the discovery of a collection of curious cracks in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: windows that seem to give on to other worlds. A particular window appears to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a problem to the religion's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid logic and back to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is somehow crucial – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic conflict between naivety and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
