Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from governments, and gathering in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, the author's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and think and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in creature form; where the skies are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and tea is sipped, and mature professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to go off in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie incarnation of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the position of head of the authority's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh influence to broaden the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved young Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which appears somehow to be the origin of a societal and economic crisis rippling out from that area. The oil is regarded by various factions as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are shown to be deeply connected with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, her movements and her path are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her personal journey to rejoin with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the central battleground in a wider war with an controlling regime which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thought, innovation and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book begins with the unveiling of a collection of unusual fissures in the fabric of the world's air: windows that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, labels these portals as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict rationalism and return to feeling, however, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between innocence and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
