Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates the concluding book, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in creature form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and tea is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and determined heroine of the earlier books, but older, sadder, more careful, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound power to expand the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to learn more about Delamare's aims. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the source of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by various factions as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her path are revealed to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the world. Her private journey to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key battleground in a broader battle with an controlling system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to suppress autonomy of thinking, innovation and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the unveiling of a collection of curious cracks in the makeup of the Earth's sky: gateways that seem to give on to other worlds. A particular portal appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these portals as a problem to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid reason and return to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and their value is somehow essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
