Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in creature form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and beverages is consumed, and older academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound influence to extend the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which manifests in some way to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from the region. The substance is seen by various factions as a marketable commodity, by others as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are shown to be inextricably entwined with the future of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a larger war with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to quell freedom of thought, originality and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a set of curious openings in the makeup of the planet's air: portals that look to lead to other worlds. An example of a window manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with its leader at its head, labels these portals as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid reason and return to instinct, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic tussle between naivety and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
