Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that manifests, here more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's last venture into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling world he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose terrain aligns with that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and think and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but below, transports are ridden and tea is drunk, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her separation from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an quality which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her mission to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous journey across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of strict, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the church's governing body, and is intent on using his fresh influence to broaden the church's control. Another protagonist, who saved baby the heroine to safety along a flooded Thames as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which appears in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The extract is seen by various factions as a marketable good, by different parties as a research-based or mystical miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is escalating in importance.
As in the original trilogy, Lyra's deeds, and her fate, are revealed to be deeply linked with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her destiny are shown to be inseparably linked with the future of the world. Her private quest to reunite with her companion and regain her vision becomes the primary conflict in a broader war with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities always have, is striving to suppress freedom of thinking, creativity and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the finding of a collection of curious cracks in the fabric of the Earth's air: gateways that seem to open into alternate realities. A particular portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a problem to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to shift from strict logic and back to instinct, however, her belief that these places must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously crucial – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The scene for a Blakean tussle between purity and knowledge is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
