Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, essences in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are taken and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and determined heroine of the previous installments, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the authority's ruling assembly, and is set on using his newfound power to broaden the religion's rule. A key character, who rescued baby the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to find out more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from that area. The extract is viewed by some as a commercial commodity, by others as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, Lyra's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, her actions and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world. Her individual journey to reunite with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a wider conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress independence of reason, originality and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the discovery of a set of strange fissures in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: gateways that seem to give on to alternate realities. A particular opening appears to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these windows as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict reason and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is somehow essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
