Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are weakening and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's last foray into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape 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 animal souls, essences in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but below, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the sharp and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh influence to broaden the religion's dominium. A key character, who carried infant the heroine to security along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which seems in some way to be the cause of a social and economic crisis spreading out from the region. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a commercial good, by others as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
As in the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her path are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her personal journey to rejoin with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the primary battleground in a larger war with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to quell independence of thinking, innovation and expression: all the inner, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the discovery of a collection of strange openings in the makeup of the world's sky: windows that appear to give on to other worlds. One such portal appears to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, labels these openings as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid reason and back to feeling, however, her belief that these locations must be protected – that their significance and their value is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a Blakean tussle between innocence and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
