Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are faltering and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Just what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are caught and drinks is consumed, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh influence to expand the institution's rule. A key character, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to the city to discover more about his aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which seems somehow to be the source of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is regarded by some as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are shown to be inseparably connected with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the fate of the universe. Her personal quest to reunite with her soul and rediscover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a larger conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to suppress independence of reason, innovation and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book begins with the unveiling of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to give on to other worlds. One such opening manifests to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these windows as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid reason and back to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is in some way vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between naivety and experience is set.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
