Tings are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and solid are deteriorating and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and tea is drunk, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the church's dominium. A key character, who rescued infant Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to the city to find out more about his aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by certain groups as a commercial product, by others as a empirical or mystical miracle, and by others still – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an affront that must be eradicated. The dilemma of where it comes from, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they converge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her path are unveiled to be inextricably woven with the future of the universe. Her private quest to rejoin with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an controlling regime which, as such regimes typically do, is seeking to suppress autonomy of reason, originality and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the unveiling of a set of strange openings in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: gateways that seem to lead to different dimensions. One such window appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its head, labels these windows as a threat to the institution's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict rationalism and back to instinct, yet, her conviction that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is somehow vital – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between naivety and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
