Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography 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 joined by daemons, souls in animal form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and tea is consumed, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and determined protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's High Council, and is set on using his newfound influence to expand the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who rescued baby Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests somehow to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from that area. The substance is regarded by some as a commercial good, by others as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. As in the original series, her choices and her path are shown to be deeply woven with the fate of the universe. Her individual quest to reunite with her soul and recover her vision becomes the key conflict in a broader conflict with an oppressive system which, as such regimes always have, is seeking to stifle autonomy of thought, originality and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The novel opens with the discovery of a collection of unusual fissures in the makeup of the Earth's atmosphere: gateways that look to give on to other worlds. A particular portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these openings as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her certainty that these sites must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is somehow vital – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean struggle between naivety and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
