Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, beings in beast form; where the air are populated with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and determined heroine of the previous installments, but more mature, sadder, more careful, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who faults her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of leader of the church's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired power to extend the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to safety along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to the city to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The oil is seen by some as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the future of the world. Her personal mission to reconnect with her daemon and recover her imagination becomes the key conflict in a larger war with an controlling government which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to quell independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the finding of a set of curious fissures in the fabric of the world's air: windows that appear to give on to other worlds. A particular portal manifests to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the church's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict reason and back to feeling, yet, her conviction that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and their value is somehow vital – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or whatever we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic struggle between purity and experience is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
