Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's concluding excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in beast form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are caught and drinks is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that childlike part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the church's governing body, and is set on using his newfound influence to extend the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued young the heroine to safety along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about his plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The substance is seen by some as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Like the original series, the protagonist's choices and her path are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the future of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the key battleground in a broader war with an controlling regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to quell autonomy of thought, innovation and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a series of strange fissures in the makeup of the Earth's air: windows that appear to give on to alternate realities. One such window appears to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these windows as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict logic and return to feeling, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way essential – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
