Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are faltering and failing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the skies are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his fresh authority to extend the church's rule. A key character, who carried young the heroine to security along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic crisis rippling out from that area. The extract is seen by certain groups as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a empirical or mystical phenomenon, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be deeply connected with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like His Dark Materials, her actions and her fate are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the future of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the key battleground in a broader war with an oppressive regime which, as these systems typically do, is striving to suppress freedom of thinking, originality and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a series of unusual openings in the makeup of the planet's air: windows that seem to open into other worlds. A particular window seems to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its head, labels these portals as a problem to the institution's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible logic and back to feeling, yet, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow crucial – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between innocence and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
