Tings are unraveling in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the coffers of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that force might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which continues where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting world he first introduced in the distant past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans look and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, souls in animal form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, vehicles are taken and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a child in the first trilogy, and then revisited as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her split from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
Pan's decision to go off in pursuit of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible 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 fresh influence to extend the institution's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant the heroine to refuge along a swollen Thames as an 11-year-old in La Belle Sauvage, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about the antagonist's aims. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which seems somehow to be the cause of a social and financial crisis emanating out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by some as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they merge. Similar to the first trilogy, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her individual mission to reunite with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the central struggle in a broader war with an oppressive government which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to quell independence of thinking, creativity and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the finding of a set of unusual fissures in the fabric of the planet's sky: portals that seem to lead to alternate realities. One such window appears to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, classifies these portals as a threat to the religion's orthodoxy and aims to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict reason and back to intuition, yet, her conviction that these places must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between purity and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
