Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reassembling themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in beast form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to leave in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound authority to extend the religion's rule. A key character, who carried infant the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by some as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they merge. As in the original series, Lyra's choices and her destiny are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her individual journey to rejoin with her daemon and recover her imagination becomes the central conflict in a broader war with an controlling system which, as such authorities always have, is striving to quell freedom of thinking, innovation and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The novel opens with the discovery of a series of strange cracks in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: windows that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a portal appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its helm, classifies these portals as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict rationalism and back to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is somehow crucial – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between naivety and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
