Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and gathering in the halls of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, gradually", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were secure and strong are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the inquiry that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, the author's final excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting universe he first introduced three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, beings in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are taken and tea is sipped, and older scholars carry luxury shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in La Belle Sauvage, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and determined protagonist of the earlier books, but more mature, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to go off in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of austere, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the church's High Council, and is set on using his newfound influence to expand the church's rule. A key character, who saved young the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an young boy in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about Delamare's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the scarce and valuable essential oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a social and economic crisis spreading out from Central Asia. The oil is seen by various factions as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric phenomenon, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be obliterated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or protected is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the destiny of the world
In the previous volume, these narratives ran mostly in tandem. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, her movements and her path are revealed to be deeply linked with the future of the world. Her private mission to rejoin with her daemon and regain her vision becomes the primary conflict in a broader conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to suppress independence of reason, innovation and art: all the personal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Moral Battles
The book begins with the discovery of a series of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: portals that seem to open into other worlds. A particular portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, classifies these portals as a threat to the institution's beliefs and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to move from rigid logic and return to feeling, yet, her belief that these locations must be preserved – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The scene for a poetic conflict between innocence and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
