Things are falling apart in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted 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"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the trade routes from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are faltering and collapsing."
Key Puzzle and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating world he first revealed three decades past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the air are filled with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are ridden and drinks is sipped, and older academics carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and determined main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened 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 go off in quest of that innocent part of her which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with wonder and risk on the way. But from the beginning, deeper currents were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of president of the Magisterium's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound authority to broaden the church's control. A key character, who carried baby Lyra to security along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to the city to find out more about his plans. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the source of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from the region. The oil is seen by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a source of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her destiny, are revealed to be deeply connected with the future of the realm
In the previous volume, these plots ran largely in tandem. In this final book, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, her movements and her path are shown to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe. Her private journey to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the central battleground in a wider war with an authoritarian government which, as these systems often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of reason, originality and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story opens with the finding of a collection of curious openings in the structure of the Earth's air: windows that appear to open into other worlds. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the highly contested rose oil. The Magisterium, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these portals as a threat to the institution's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from inflexible reason and return to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be protected – that what they stand for and what they provide is somehow vital – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical struggle between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the