Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of crowds. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and drinks is consumed, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in pursuit of that youthful part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of austere, procedural wickedness – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound power to extend the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried infant Lyra to safety along a swollen river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about Delamare's intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and costly essential oil which appears somehow to be the cause of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is viewed by some as a tradeable good, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the first series, the heroine's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to the first trilogy, her movements and her destiny are shown to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the realm. Her private journey to reconnect with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the central struggle in a wider conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to quell freedom of thinking, originality and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual openings in the structure of the world's sky: portals that appear to give on to other worlds. A particular window seems to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these openings as a problem to the institution's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical tussle between purity and maturity is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
