Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are ridden and beverages is sipped, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval rippling out from the region. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Like the original series, Lyra's movements and her fate are shown to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the realm. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key struggle in a wider battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to suppress freedom of thought, originality and culture: all the personal, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the finding of a series of strange fissures in the makeup of the planet's air: portals that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular window manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these windows as a problem to the institution's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible logic and return to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be protected – that their significance and their value is mysteriously essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic tussle between naivety and knowledge is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
