Tings are collapsing in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a intense and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Control is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of mobs. "An element is at work, very quietly, gradually", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are weakening and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that drives the concluding book, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, by all accounts, the author's concluding venture into the elaborately built, deeply captivating world he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, beings in animal form; where the skies are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but below, buses are ridden and tea is consumed, and middle-aged academics carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the sharp and persistent heroine of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more careful, less certain. This restraint is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that youthful part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in motion, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of austere, bureaucratic evil – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his newfound influence to broaden the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried baby the heroine to refuge along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly essential oil which manifests in some way to be the source of a social and economic crisis rippling out from Central Asia. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable commodity, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are shown to be inseparably connected with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these storylines ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like the original series, the protagonist's movements and her path are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the universe. Her private quest to reconnect with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a larger conflict with an controlling regime which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to quell independence of reason, originality and art: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the finding of a set of strange cracks in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: portals that seem to lead to different dimensions. An example of a window manifests to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, labels these openings as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict logic and back to instinct, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be defended – that their significance and their value is in some way essential – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical tussle between purity and experience is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
