Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in animal form; where the heavens are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are caught and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the church's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound power to broaden the institution's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued baby the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to the city to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and precious rose oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a societal and economic crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by various factions as a tradeable product, by different parties as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its source, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her fate are shown to be deeply woven with the future of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her soul and regain her vision becomes the key conflict in a larger battle with an oppressive regime which, as these systems always have, is seeking to quell freedom of reason, originality and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel begins with the discovery of a collection of curious openings in the fabric of the world's air: windows that look to give on to different dimensions. One such window manifests to be the origin of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, labels these windows as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict reason and return to feeling, yet, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and their value is somehow essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, 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 poetic conflict between purity and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the