Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's last excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and determined main character of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound influence to broaden the church's control. A key character, who rescued baby Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a social and economic crisis emanating out from the region. The oil is seen by some as a marketable product, by others as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the primary conflict in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as such regimes always have, is striving to suppress freedom of thinking, originality and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the discovery of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. One such opening appears to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these portals as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid reason and back to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow vital – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between purity and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
