Tings are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new 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 governments, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that animates this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's last venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, transports are ridden and beverages is drunk, and older professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to extend the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young Lyra to security along a overflowing Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about his aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is seen by some as a marketable product, by others as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply connected with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Like the first trilogy, her choices and her fate are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world. Her individual mission to rejoin with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the central battleground in a larger conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thought, originality and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the unveiling of a series of curious fissures in the fabric of the Earth's air: portals that look to give on to different dimensions. One such opening seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, labels these openings as a problem to the institution's beliefs and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid reason and return to intuition, however, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic struggle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
