Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that seems, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is draining from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the grasp of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives the concluding book, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are taken and drinks is drunk, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and persistent heroine of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his newfound authority to expand the institution's control. Another protagonist, who carried young the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her destiny are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world. Her private mission to rejoin with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a larger conflict with an controlling system which, as such authorities always have, is seeking to quell independence of thinking, originality and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the finding of a set of strange openings in the fabric of the Earth's air: gateways that seem to open into other worlds. One such window appears to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with its leader at its helm, designates these portals as a threat to the institution's doctrine and aims to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to move from strict logic and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is in some way vital – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean struggle between purity and knowledge is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
