Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from governments, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating universe he first introduced three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape maps on to that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in beast form; where the skies are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and tea is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and persistent main character of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound authority to expand the religion's control. Another protagonist, who carried infant the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the source of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from the region. The oil is seen by some as a marketable commodity, by others as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be removed or preserved is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are shown to be deeply entwined with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Similar to the original series, her choices and her fate are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the fate of the realm. Her individual mission to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader battle with an oppressive regime which, as these systems typically do, is attempting to stifle freedom of thinking, innovation and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the unveiling of a collection of unusual fissures in the makeup of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to alternate realities. An example of a window appears to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these openings as a problem to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid logic and return to instinct, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way vital – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic conflict between naivety and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
