Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in beast form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, transports are caught and beverages is sipped, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired power to extend the religion's rule. A key character, who carried young Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by some as a tradeable commodity, by others as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the original series, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are revealed to be deeply woven with the destiny of the world. Her private quest to rejoin with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the central conflict in a broader battle with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to stifle freedom of thought, creativity and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book opens with the finding of a collection of unusual fissures in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. An example of a window manifests to be the point of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its head, labels these windows as a challenge to the church's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict logic and return to intuition, however, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic tussle between innocence and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
