Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, here more than ever, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from governments, and pooling in the offices of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and solid are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that propels this final volume, which resumes where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, essences in beast form; where the air are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but underneath, transports are taken and beverages is sipped, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a young girl in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and persistent main character of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the incitements of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in play, and sinister powers at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the position of president of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound influence to broaden the religion's control. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an child in the first book, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to discover more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from that area. The extract is seen by some as a marketable good, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
As in His Dark Materials, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are shown to be inseparably entwined with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the first trilogy, her movements and her fate are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world. Her individual journey to reconnect with her daemon and recover her vision becomes the key conflict in a larger conflict with an authoritarian government which, as such regimes always have, is striving to stifle autonomy of thought, creativity and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the discovery of a set of unusual cracks in the makeup of the Earth's sky: portals that look to open into other worlds. A particular portal appears to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these windows as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid rationalism and return to feeling, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be protected – that their significance and their value is mysteriously vital – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The stage for a philosophical struggle between naivety and experience is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
