Tings are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the heavens are filled with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are taken and drinks is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and persistent heroine of the previous installments, but older, sadder, warier, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to go off in quest of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his recently acquired power to broaden the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to find out more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly rose oil which manifests in some way to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from the region. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial product, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's movements and her fate are shown to be inextricably woven with the fate of the world. Her individual journey to reunite with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the central conflict in a wider battle with an controlling regime which, as such authorities always have, is striving to suppress freedom of reason, creativity and art: all the internal, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book begins with the unveiling of a collection of unusual fissures in the makeup of the planet's air: gateways that appear to lead to alternate realities. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, designates these windows as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from strict rationalism and return to intuition, yet, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is somehow vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical conflict between naivety and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
