Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are faltering and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's final foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and tea is consumed, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in action, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound power to extend the church's dominium. A key character, who saved infant Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which seems somehow to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by various factions as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her path are shown to be inseparably woven with the fate of the realm. Her personal journey to reunite with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the key battleground in a broader battle with an oppressive regime which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to stifle autonomy of reason, innovation and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel opens with the finding of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's atmosphere: windows that appear to give on to different dimensions. One such window appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its helm, designates these windows as a problem to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict rationalism and revert to intuition, however, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
