Tings are falling apart in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced three decades past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, buses are taken and tea is consumed, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and persistent heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to go off 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 rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound influence to expand the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young Lyra to refuge along a flooded Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval rippling out from that area. The substance is regarded by some as a tradeable product, by others as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the realm
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her fate are shown to be deeply woven with the fate of the realm. Her individual journey to rejoin with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the primary struggle in a broader battle with an controlling government which, as such regimes always have, is striving to stifle independence of thought, originality and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story begins with the discovery of a set of unusual cracks in the fabric of the planet's air: portals that appear to give on to different dimensions. An example of a portal manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its head, classifies these windows as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, yet, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is somehow vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a poetic struggle between naivety and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
