Tings are unraveling in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of business empires, the grasp of crowds. "Something is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and solid are weakening and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element 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, Pullman's concluding venture into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating realm he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of this world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the skies are filled with sorceresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and drinks is sipped, and mature academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the religious ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his newfound influence to expand the religion's rule. Another protagonist, who carried infant the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to Geneva to learn more about Delamare's plans. And behind all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The substance is viewed by some as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by yet others – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the original trilogy, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the future of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, her actions and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her individual journey to rejoin with her daemon and regain her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a broader conflict with an oppressive system which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to quell freedom of thinking, originality and culture: all the inner, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the discovery of a series of strange fissures in the fabric of the Earth's sky: gateways that look to lead to alternate realities. An example of a opening appears to be the point of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, classifies these openings as a problem to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict reason and return to instinct, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be protected – that their significance and what they offer is in some way vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic struggle between innocence and knowledge is set.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
