Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of business empires, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that propels this final volume, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, according to many, the author's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the skies are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and tea is consumed, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious heroine of the previous installments, but older, melancholic, more careful, less certain. This limitation is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to depart in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his fresh authority to extend the institution's rule. A key character, who rescued young Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to the city to discover more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and costly essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The oil is seen by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply linked with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her destiny are shown to be inseparably linked with the fate of the realm. Her private journey to rejoin with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the primary struggle in a larger battle with an authoritarian system which, as such authorities often attempt, is seeking to suppress autonomy of thought, creativity and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the unveiling of a series of strange openings in the fabric of the planet's air: gateways that appear to lead to other worlds. A particular window appears to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these portals as a threat to the religion's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid logic and back to intuition, however, her certainty that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is in some way crucial – grows. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between naivety and knowledge is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
