Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in animal form; where the skies are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and tea is consumed, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound authority to extend the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby the heroine to safety along a flooded river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is assigned to the city to discover more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the origin of a social and financial disturbance emanating out from the region. The substance is viewed by some as a tradeable commodity, by others as a empirical or mystical phenomenon, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the realm. Her private journey to reconnect with her companion and recover her creativity becomes the key battleground in a wider battle with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities always have, is striving to stifle autonomy of thought, originality and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the finding of a collection of unusual fissures in the structure of the world's sky: gateways that seem to lead to other worlds. A particular opening seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these portals as a threat to the religion's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid logic and back to feeling, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is in some way crucial – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a philosophical struggle between innocence and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
