Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are weakening and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in beast form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, vehicles are ridden and drinks is sipped, and older professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her split from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in search of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of austere, procedural malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the institution's control. A key character, who saved young the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and costly botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the cause of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from the region. The oil is seen by various factions as a commercial commodity, by others as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her path are unveiled to be inseparably woven with the fate of the universe. Her private quest to reconnect with her soul and regain her vision becomes the central conflict in a wider conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities always have, is striving to quell independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a collection of curious openings in the structure of the world's air: gateways that look to lead to different dimensions. One such opening seems to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these portals as a challenge to the church's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from strict reason and revert to feeling, yet, her belief that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and their value is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical tussle between naivety and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
