Tings are unraveling in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are weakening and failing."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a domain whose landscape corresponds to that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in beast form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, transports are taken and beverages is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the prickly and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, melancholic, more careful, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in search of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, administrative malice – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the church's High Council, and is set on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a swollen Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to Geneva to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which seems somehow to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance rippling out from that area. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable product, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a wellspring of evil; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they merge. As in the original series, her choices and her path are shown to be inseparably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her individual journey to reunite with her soul and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a wider battle with an oppressive regime which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thinking, originality and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The novel begins with the unveiling of a series of unusual fissures in the structure of the Earth's air: windows that look to open into other worlds. A particular window seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its head, classifies these portals as a challenge to the religion's orthodoxy and sets out to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid logic and return to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is in some way essential – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we call it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical conflict between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
