Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates the concluding book, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, Pullman's final venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, buses are ridden and tea is consumed, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the spiky and determined heroine of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, warier, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in quest of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of austere, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his fresh power to extend the religion's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which manifests in some way to be the cause of a social and economic crisis rippling out from that area. The extract is seen by some as a tradeable good, by others as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the fate of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in the first trilogy, her actions and her path are shown to be deeply linked with the future of the realm. Her individual journey to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key conflict in a wider war with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to suppress independence of thought, originality and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book starts with the discovery of a collection of curious cracks in the fabric of the world's sky: portals that look to lead to alternate realities. An example of a opening manifests to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, designates these windows as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, however, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way crucial – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between purity and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
