Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen 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 vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in animal form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are caught and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the office of president of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh power to broaden the institution's dominium. A key character, who carried infant the heroine to security along a flooded river as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests in some way to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by various factions as a tradeable product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they converge. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her fate are revealed to be deeply entwined with the fate of the universe. Her private mission to reconnect with her companion and recover her vision becomes the central conflict in a wider battle with an authoritarian government which, as these systems typically do, is striving to stifle independence of thought, creativity and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the unveiling of a series of strange fissures in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: portals that appear to open into other worlds. One such portal manifests to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its head, labels these openings as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict reason and return to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a Blakean tussle between innocence and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
