Tings are unraveling in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are ridden and beverages is consumed, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and persistent main character of the earlier books, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his newfound influence to broaden the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued baby Lyra to safety along a flooded Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is assigned to the city to find out more about Delamare's plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which seems somehow to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a marketable good, by different parties as a scientific or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her path are revealed to be inseparably linked with the future of the realm. Her personal quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her vision becomes the primary conflict in a wider conflict with an controlling government which, as such authorities typically do, is striving to stifle independence of thinking, originality and art: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the finding of a set of unusual cracks in the structure of the world's sky: gateways that seem to give on to other worlds. One such opening appears to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these windows as a problem to the institution's orthodoxy and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, however, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow crucial – grows. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a poetic tussle between naivety and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
