Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the grasp of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are weakening and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth concluded. This is, by all accounts, the author's last excursion into the carefully crafted, deeply captivating universe he first introduced three decades past, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of our world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the heavens are populated with witches and legendary creatures, but below, transports are caught and beverages is sipped, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first met as a child in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and determined main character of the prior volumes, but older, melancholic, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to leave in search of that innocent part of Lyra which she seems to have lost (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which followed the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with wonder and danger on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, administrative evil – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the office of president of the authority's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to expand the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued baby Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the first book, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the rare and costly essential oil which seems mysteriously to be the cause of a social and financial crisis spreading out from that area. The extract is regarded by various factions as a tradeable commodity, by others as a research-based or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, our protagonist's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in tandem. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her destiny are revealed to be inextricably linked with the destiny of the realm. Her private quest to reunite with her companion and recover her vision becomes the central struggle in a wider battle with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is attempting to suppress independence of thought, creativity and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Philosophical Struggles
The story begins with the discovery of a set of unusual openings in the makeup of the world's atmosphere: portals that seem to give on to other worlds. An example of a portal seems to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, labels these windows as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As Lyra begins to shift from strict reason and revert to intuition, yet, her conviction that these places must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is somehow crucial – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a poetic tussle between purity and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
