Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and durable are weakening and giving way."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, Pullman's final foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the air are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are caught and drinks is consumed, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This limitation is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in search of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of austere, bureaucratic malice – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the position of leader of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his newfound authority to broaden the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a overflowing Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is seen by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her destiny are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the realm. Her personal quest to rejoin with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the key conflict in a broader war with an authoritarian system which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to suppress independence of thinking, creativity and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the unveiling of a collection of strange cracks in the structure of the world's sky: gateways that appear to open into different dimensions. A particular portal appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its head, classifies these openings as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid rationalism and revert to intuition, however, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and what they provide is mysteriously essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic tussle between purity and knowledge is set.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
