Tings are falling apart in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives this final volume, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography maps on to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the air are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but below, transports are caught and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and persistent main character of the previous installments, but older, sadder, warier, less certain. This limitation is amplified by her division from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to depart in quest of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of strict, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh influence to extend the church's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued infant Lyra to refuge along a overflowing river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which seems somehow to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from that area. The substance is seen by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a scientific or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are shown to be inseparably linked with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the fate of the universe. Her personal mission to reunite with her soul and regain her vision becomes the primary battleground in a larger war with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities always have, is attempting to suppress freedom of reason, innovation and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the discovery of a set of strange cracks in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: portals that appear to give on to other worlds. One such window seems to be the source of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with its leader at its leadership, labels these openings as a threat to the religion's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and revert to feeling, yet, her certainty that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and their value is in some way vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a poetic tussle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
