Tings are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are faltering and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and drinks is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of strict, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh influence to extend the church's rule. A key character, who rescued baby the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which seems in some way to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by some as a marketable product, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her movements and her destiny are unveiled to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe. Her personal journey to reconnect with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider conflict with an controlling regime which, as these systems always have, is attempting to quell independence of reason, innovation and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the unveiling of a collection of unusual openings in the fabric of the world's air: portals that look to give on to different dimensions. A particular portal appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its head, designates these windows as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible reason and revert to feeling, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
