Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from governments, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and durable are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor ended. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting world he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are caught and tea is drunk, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and determined heroine of the earlier books, but older, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound authority to extend the institution's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby the heroine to security along a flooded river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to the city to learn more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which seems somehow to be the cause of a social and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by some as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they come together. As in the original series, her actions and her fate are revealed to be inseparably woven with the fate of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the central struggle in a broader battle with an controlling system which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to quell freedom of reason, innovation and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Moral Battles
The book starts with the discovery of a set of unusual openings in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: windows that appear to give on to alternate realities. One such opening appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its head, designates these windows as a threat to the church's beliefs and endeavors to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid logic and revert to intuition, however, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is somehow essential – grows. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical tussle between purity and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
