Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which resumes where the previous book concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in creature form; where the skies are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are taken and tea is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister incarnation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound power to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried infant the heroine to refuge along a overflowing river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which manifests somehow to be the cause of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from the region. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial good, by others as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in the original series, Lyra's choices and her fate are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world. Her private quest to reunite with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the central conflict in a broader conflict with an controlling government which, as these systems always have, is striving to stifle independence of reason, innovation and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book opens with the unveiling of a series of curious openings in the fabric of the Earth's air: windows that appear to give on to different dimensions. A particular opening seems to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, classifies these portals as a threat to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible rationalism and back to intuition, yet, her certainty that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and what they offer is mysteriously essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between purity and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
