Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are weakening and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are caught and beverages is sipped, and mature professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved young the heroine to security along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by various factions as a tradeable product, by others as a research-based or mystical phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's movements and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her private quest to reunite with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the key struggle in a wider battle with an oppressive government which, as such authorities always have, is striving to quell freedom of thinking, originality and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the unveiling of a collection of curious openings in the makeup of the world's sky: portals that appear to open into different dimensions. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these portals as a threat to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible logic and back to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean struggle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
