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Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are faltering and giving way."

Key Puzzle and Her Quest

Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are taken and drinks is consumed, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more careful, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.

Interwoven Plots

Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh influence to expand the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to security along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from the region. The substance is seen by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.

Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the future of the world

In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the fate of the world. Her private quest to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the primary battleground in a wider war with an controlling system which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to stifle autonomy of reason, originality and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.

Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts

The novel opens with the discovery of a series of unusual cracks in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: windows that seem to give on to other worlds. An example of a opening manifests to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these windows as a problem to the institution's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid rationalism and return to instinct, however, her certainty that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is somehow crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic struggle between purity and experience is established.

Plot Rhythm and Character Development

At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the