Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are deteriorating and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are taken and tea is drunk, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is amplified 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.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to leave in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of strict, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to expand the church's control. A key character, who rescued young Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The oil is regarded by various factions as a marketable good, by others as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Like the original series, Lyra's choices and her path are revealed to be inseparably woven with the fate of the universe. Her individual quest to rejoin with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle autonomy of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel starts with the unveiling of a series of strange cracks in the makeup of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. A particular opening manifests to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from inflexible reason and back to feeling, yet, her belief that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow vital – grows. "Dust, or the extract, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean tussle between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
