Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the hands of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives the concluding book, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first unveiled three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the heavens are filled with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and beverages is sipped, and mature professors carry Harrods shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, warier, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her separation from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an quality which he epitomises as her "vision"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to extend the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who rescued young the heroine to security along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a empirical or spiritual wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her fate, are shown to be deeply connected with the future of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's actions and her path are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm. Her personal journey to reconnect with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the key struggle in a wider battle with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems always have, is seeking to stifle independence of thought, creativity and art: all the internal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book begins with the discovery of a set of unusual openings in the fabric of the world's air: portals that look to open into other worlds. One such portal seems to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with its leader at its head, designates these portals as a problem to the church's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible rationalism and back to intuition, yet, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their meaning and their value is mysteriously crucial – increases. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic conflict between innocence and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
