Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and strong are deteriorating and failing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, according to many, the author's concluding excursion into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled three decades past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the skies are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, buses are caught and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and determined main character of the earlier books, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, bureaucratic malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the institution's dominium. A key character, who saved baby the heroine to security along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to learn more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a social and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The substance is seen by various factions as a marketable product, by others as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Similar to His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. Like the original series, Lyra's movements and her fate are revealed to be inextricably woven with the fate of the universe. Her individual journey to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the key battleground in a broader war with an oppressive government which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to suppress autonomy of thinking, originality and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a set of unusual cracks in the fabric of the planet's sky: portals that look to open into other worlds. An example of a opening manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its head, designates these openings as a challenge to the church's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid rationalism and revert to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is in some way vital – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical conflict between naivety and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
