Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Dust Trilogy, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from governments, and accumulating in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of business empires, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant Mustafa Bey, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were stable and durable are faltering and giving way."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's final foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling universe he first introduced in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and reason and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and mythical beasts, but underneath, transports are ridden and beverages is sipped, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a child in the original trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, warier, more doubtful. This limitation is intensified by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in search of that childlike part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "imagination"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and danger on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and darker forces at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister representation of austere, procedural wickedness – is under new leadership, and asserting its power. The antagonist – our protagonist's relative, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the authority's High Council, and is intent on using his newfound authority to extend the church's rule. A key character, who carried infant Lyra to refuge along a flooded river as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to the city to discover more about the antagonist's aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable rose oil which seems somehow to be the source of a social and financial crisis rippling out from the region. The substance is viewed by certain groups as a tradeable good, by others as a research-based or spiritual wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "men from the mountains" – as a source of malevolence; an insult that must be eradicated. The question of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the future of the universe
In its predecessor, these plots ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, Lyra's movements and her destiny are unveiled to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the realm. Her personal mission to reunite with her soul and regain her vision becomes the key conflict in a broader war with an controlling regime which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to stifle autonomy of reason, innovation and expression: all the personal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the discovery of a series of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: gateways that look to lead to different dimensions. One such portal seems to be the source of the fiercely disputed mystical extract. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, labels these windows as a challenge to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to move from strict reason and return to feeling, yet, her conviction that these places must be preserved – that their significance and their value is in some way crucial – increases. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic conflict between purity and experience is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
