Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are ridden and beverages is sipped, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, warier, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, administrative evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh power to broaden the church's control. A key character, who saved infant Lyra to security along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The substance is seen by some as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably woven with the fate of the realm. Her private quest to reunite with her soul and recover her creativity becomes the key struggle in a larger war with an oppressive regime which, as these systems typically do, is striving to stifle independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the finding of a series of unusual openings in the structure of the Earth's sky: gateways that look to give on to alternate realities. A particular portal seems to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict reason and return to feeling, however, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is somehow crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
