Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her split from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the religious governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is set on using his fresh influence to expand the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious botanical extract which appears somehow to be the source of a societal and financial disturbance emanating out from the region. The oil is seen by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply linked with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. As in His Dark Materials, her movements and her fate are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the universe. Her private journey to reunite with her daemon and recover her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a larger war with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the unveiling of a set of curious openings in the makeup of the Earth's air: windows that look to lead to alternate realities. A particular opening appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these portals as a threat to the church's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict logic and back to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – 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 name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
