Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives the concluding book, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, the author's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in creature form; where the heavens are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, buses are ridden and drinks is consumed, and older scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that youthful part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of austere, procedural malice – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his fresh authority to expand the religion's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued infant Lyra to safety along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to the city to learn more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from that area. The oil is viewed by various factions as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her fate, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the original series, her choices and her fate are revealed to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the world. Her private quest to rejoin with her companion and regain her vision becomes the primary struggle in a larger conflict with an oppressive regime which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thought, creativity and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a set of strange fissures in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: portals that seem to give on to alternate realities. A particular portal appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict rationalism and return to instinct, however, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is somehow essential – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic conflict between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
