Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, now more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from authorities, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of business empires, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and failing."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the publication of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the people appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by daemons, beings in animal form; where the skies are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are taken and drinks is sipped, and older professors carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the prickly and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, warier, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to depart in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the religious controlling power, and the author's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, administrative malice – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the authority's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh power to extend the church's dominium. A key character, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a social and financial upheaval emanating out from that area. The oil is regarded by certain groups as a marketable product, by others as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of where it comes from, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, the heroine's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inextricably linked with the future of the world
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they converge. Similar to the original series, the protagonist's movements and her path are shown to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world. Her personal journey to rejoin with her soul and recover her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a broader conflict with an oppressive system which, as such regimes often attempt, is attempting to stifle independence of thought, innovation and expression: all the inner, rebellious ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book starts with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the makeup of the Earth's air: windows that appear to open into other worlds. One such window manifests to be the origin of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The church, with Delamare at its helm, designates these windows as a threat to the institution's beliefs and aims to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from inflexible reason and back to instinct, nevertheless, her conviction that these locations must be defended – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way crucial – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean tussle between innocence and maturity is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
