Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and durable are faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's final venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are caught and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh influence to broaden the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is assigned to the city to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which seems somehow to be the cause of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable good, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its source, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Like the original series, her movements and her fate are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her daemon and recover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a broader battle with an controlling regime which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to suppress independence of reason, creativity and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the discovery of a collection of unusual openings in the makeup of the Earth's atmosphere: windows that look to open into alternate realities. An example of a portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its helm, classifies these openings as a problem to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict reason and revert to feeling, yet, her belief that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
