Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, in this volume especially, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and solid are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates this final volume, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in animal form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, buses are ridden and tea is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still clearly the spiky and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, warier, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her division from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of strict, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his recently acquired influence to expand the institution's control. A key character, who rescued baby the heroine to security along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to a key location to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable botanical extract which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is regarded by some as a marketable product, by alternate groups as a empirical or mystical wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Like the original trilogy, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, her choices and her path are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the future of the world. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the central struggle in a larger battle with an oppressive system which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle autonomy of reason, originality and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the unveiling of a series of unusual cracks in the fabric of the Earth's sky: gateways that appear to lead to other worlds. A particular portal manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, classifies these openings as a problem to the church's orthodoxy and sets out to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be protected – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously crucial – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between purity and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
