Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were secure and strong are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed three decades past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, transports are ridden and beverages is consumed, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and determined main character of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in pursuit of that childlike part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of president of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh power to extend the religion's control. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a overflowing river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to Geneva to discover more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and economic crisis emanating out from that area. The extract is viewed by various factions as a tradeable product, by others as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. As in the first trilogy, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe. Her individual journey to reunite with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider battle with an authoritarian system which, as these systems always have, is attempting to quell independence of thought, innovation and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book begins with the discovery of a series of curious openings in the makeup of the world's sky: windows that seem to open into other worlds. A particular portal manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these openings as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from inflexible reason and return to intuition, yet, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is somehow essential – increases. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a Blakean struggle between purity and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
