Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced three decades past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in creature form; where the heavens are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, warier, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to depart in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh influence to broaden the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to discover more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from that area. The oil is seen by certain groups as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the universe. Her individual mission to reconnect with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the primary battleground in a broader conflict with an controlling system which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to quell autonomy of thought, innovation and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book begins with the discovery of a collection of strange openings in the fabric of the Earth's air: gateways that appear to open into alternate realities. One such portal manifests to be the source of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these portals as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict rationalism and return to instinct, however, her belief that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is somehow vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between naivety and knowledge is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
