Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are faltering and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, the author's concluding foray into the elaborately built, deeply captivating universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the skies are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and beverages is consumed, and mature professors carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in search of that childlike part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the church's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound influence to expand the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young the heroine to refuge along a flooded river as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which manifests in some way to be the origin of a social and economic upheaval emanating out from the region. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by others as a research-based or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the realm
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In the conclusion, they merge. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her path are unveiled to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe. Her individual journey to reconnect with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a broader war with an controlling government which, as these systems often attempt, is seeking to quell freedom of reason, originality and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual cracks in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: portals that look to open into other worlds. One such portal seems to be the point of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these openings as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and aims to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible reason and revert to instinct, yet, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is in some way vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical struggle between innocence and knowledge is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
