Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from governments, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the control of crowds. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that drives this final volume, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, according to many, the author's last foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a world whose terrain maps on to that of our world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, beings in animal form; where the air are populated with witches and gryphons, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and beverages is sipped, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the religious governing authority, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the church's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound authority to extend the institution's rule. A key character, who rescued young Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about his plans. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable botanical extract which seems in some way to be the origin of a societal and economic disturbance rippling out from that area. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by others as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are shown to be deeply connected with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her fate are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her private journey to reunite with her daemon and recover her creativity becomes the central conflict in a broader war with an controlling regime which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to suppress freedom of thought, creativity and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The story starts with the unveiling of a set of curious openings in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to lead to alternate realities. An example of a portal manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, labels these openings as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and sets out to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid reason and return to feeling, however, her belief that these places must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is mysteriously vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between naivety and experience is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
