Tings are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's last excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and drinks is drunk, and mature academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his newfound influence to expand the institution's dominium. A key character, who rescued infant Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from the region. The substance is viewed by some as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the first trilogy, her movements and her path are unveiled to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to reunite with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a larger battle with an controlling government which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to stifle autonomy of thinking, originality and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the finding of a series of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's sky: windows that appear to give on to different dimensions. One such window seems to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, designates these portals as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict logic and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is somehow crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
