Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are weakening and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of this world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the air are populated with witches and gryphons, but underneath, transports are taken and tea is drunk, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the spiky and determined heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in quest of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the church's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to extend the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who carried young the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to the city to find out more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which manifests somehow to be the source of a social and financial upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, Lyra's actions, and her future, are shown to be deeply linked with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her path are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the fate of the universe. Her personal quest to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the key battleground in a wider conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities always have, is seeking to stifle independence of reason, originality and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the unveiling of a collection of strange fissures in the fabric of the planet's air: gateways that look to lead to alternate realities. An example of a window appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, designates these portals as a problem to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid logic and back to instinct, however, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between naivety and experience is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
