Tings are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed in the distant past, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography maps on to that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, souls in creature form; where the heavens are filled with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still clearly the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious ruling body, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the church's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young the heroine to refuge along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to a key location to discover more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and costly essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by others as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The question of its source, its meaning, and if it should be removed or preserved is escalating in importance.
Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's choices and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably woven with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her companion and regain her vision becomes the primary conflict in a larger war with an controlling regime which, as such regimes always have, is striving to suppress autonomy of reason, creativity and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel opens with the unveiling of a set of unusual cracks in the structure of the Earth's sky: portals that seem to give on to alternate realities. A particular window manifests to be the source of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these windows as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and sets out to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid logic and revert to feeling, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously crucial – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or whatever we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a poetic struggle between purity and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
