Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are weakening and failing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that propels the concluding book, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are ridden and drinks is drunk, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in quest of that childlike part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh influence to extend the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an young boy in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to the city to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable good, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's movements and her fate are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the key struggle in a larger battle with an controlling system which, as these systems always have, is seeking to suppress independence of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The novel starts with the finding of a series of unusual fissures in the structure of the Earth's sky: windows that appear to give on to other worlds. A particular opening manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these portals as a threat to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible reason and return to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be protected – that their significance and their value is somehow crucial – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between naivety and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
