Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are weakening and giving way."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and drinks is consumed, and mature professors carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and determined main character of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, warier, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired power to extend the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who carried young Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about his aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by others as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question 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 actions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply connected with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. As in the first trilogy, her choices and her path are shown to be deeply linked with the fate of the realm. Her private mission to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a larger war with an oppressive system which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to stifle independence of reason, innovation and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the finding of a set of strange cracks in the makeup of the planet's air: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. An example of a portal manifests to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its helm, classifies these windows as a threat to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict rationalism and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously vital – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean tussle between innocence and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
