Tings are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and strong are faltering and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and act like us, but are joined by daemons, essences in beast form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, buses are taken and tea is drunk, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, sadder, warier, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to depart in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with marvel and peril on the way. But from the start, deeper currents were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's uncle, who faults her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound authority to broaden the church's control. Another protagonist, who rescued baby Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an university scholar with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to the city to discover more about the antagonist's plans. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from that area. The substance is viewed by some as a marketable good, by others as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
As in His Dark Materials, the heroine's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, her choices and her fate are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the realm. Her personal journey to rejoin with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a wider conflict with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to suppress autonomy of thought, innovation and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the finding of a set of strange fissures in the fabric of the world's atmosphere: windows that look to open into alternate realities. An example of a window seems to be the source of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to turn away from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between naivety and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
