Tings are falling apart in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels this final volume, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and beverages is drunk, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to depart in search of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of austere, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a marketable product, by different parties as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to the original series, Lyra's choices and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the universe. Her individual quest to reunite with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a broader war with an oppressive system which, as such regimes often attempt, is striving to stifle independence of reason, originality and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The story begins with the discovery of a collection of curious fissures in the fabric of the Earth's air: portals that appear to open into different dimensions. A particular portal manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these windows as a threat to the religion's doctrine and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid reason and back to instinct, however, her belief that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow crucial – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical struggle between naivety and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
