Things are falling apart in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "An element is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that animates this final volume, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, according to many, the author's final venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose terrain maps on to that of the real world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the heavens are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, transports are ridden and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the spiky and tenacious main character of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, less sure. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
Pan's decision to depart in search of that childlike part of her which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and peril on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the faith's controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. The antagonist – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of head of the authority's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to broaden the religion's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young Lyra to refuge along a flooded Thames as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the uncommon and valuable essential oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial disturbance emanating out from that area. The extract is regarded by some as a marketable good, by alternate groups as a research-based or mystical phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "highland figures" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
Like the first series, Lyra's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her fate are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the future of the realm. Her personal mission to rejoin with her soul and regain her vision becomes the key struggle in a broader war with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to stifle independence of reason, creativity and culture: all the inner, resistant ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the unveiling of a set of unusual openings in the fabric of the planet's air: gateways that appear to give on to different dimensions. One such portal seems to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its helm, classifies these portals as a challenge to the religion's beliefs and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to move from strict reason and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these places must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is somehow essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and maturity is established.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
