Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and tea is sipped, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the spiky and persistent heroine of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of austere, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the church's dominium. A key character, who carried baby the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to learn more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious botanical extract which manifests in some way to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The oil is seen by various factions as a tradeable good, by others as a empirical or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the fate of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. As in the first trilogy, her choices and her path are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her individual journey to rejoin with her soul and regain her vision becomes the key battleground in a broader war with an oppressive system which, as these systems typically do, is attempting to suppress freedom of reason, originality and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book begins with the unveiling of a set of curious cracks in the structure of the world's air: windows that appear to open into alternate realities. A particular window appears to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these openings as a threat to the institution's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict logic and revert to instinct, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between purity and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
