Tings are falling apart in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, vehicles are caught and drinks is consumed, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of strict, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the church's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to expand the religion's rule. A key character, who saved baby the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by various factions as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. Like the original series, Lyra's movements and her fate are revealed to be inseparably linked with the fate of the world. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider battle with an oppressive government which, as such regimes typically do, is attempting to suppress freedom of thinking, originality and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel starts with the discovery of a collection of strange fissures in the structure of the Earth's air: portals that look to lead to other worlds. A particular window seems to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a problem to the institution's doctrine and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid rationalism and back to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be defended – that their significance and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean tussle between purity and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
