Tings are collapsing in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are weakening and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the skies are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, vehicles are taken and tea is sipped, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to go off in quest of that childlike part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, administrative malice – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his fresh power to expand the religion's control. A key character, who rescued infant Lyra to safety along a swollen river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which seems in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from the region. The extract is regarded by various factions as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the original series, her movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the fate of the world. Her private journey to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a larger battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems always have, is striving to stifle autonomy of reason, creativity and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the discovery of a collection of unusual cracks in the structure of the world's sky: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these portals as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid rationalism and back to feeling, yet, her certainty that these places must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is somehow vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and maturity is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
