Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are weakening and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are taken and tea is sipped, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in quest of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh authority to extend the religion's dominium. A key character, who carried young Lyra to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to the city to learn more about his plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a commercial good, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they converge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's actions and her fate are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm. Her private mission to reunite with her companion and recover her vision becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, creativity and culture: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the unveiling of a collection of strange cracks in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that appear to give on to alternate realities. One such opening manifests to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these openings as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, yet, her belief that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
