Tings are collapsing in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in animal form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and drinks is drunk, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but aged, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound authority to extend the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved infant Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which manifests in some way to be the cause of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from that area. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a marketable product, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her fate are revealed to be inextricably woven with the future of the world. Her individual journey to reconnect with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a wider war with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to quell independence of thought, originality and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The novel begins with the discovery of a series of unusual cracks in the structure of the planet's air: gateways that seem to lead to different dimensions. A particular window manifests to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these portals as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible logic and return to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a poetic tussle between purity and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
