Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from authorities, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his seat in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and durable are deteriorating and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Just what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first introduced in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the humans look and think and behave like us, but are joined by daemons, souls in animal form; where the heavens are filled with enchantresses and mythical beasts, but beneath those skies, transports are caught and tea is drunk, and mature scholars carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and persistent protagonist of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is intensified by her split from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to depart in pursuit of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and danger on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the faith's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of strict, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's relative, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his fresh power to broaden the church's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a swollen Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance spreading out from that area. The substance is seen by certain groups as a tradeable commodity, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by yet others – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its meaning, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these plots ran largely in parallel. In The Rose Field, they merge. As in the original series, Lyra's choices and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably woven with the fate of the world. Her personal journey to reconnect with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the primary battleground in a broader battle with an oppressive regime which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to stifle autonomy of thought, originality and expression: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel opens with the discovery of a collection of strange openings in the fabric of the Earth's air: portals that look to open into alternate realities. One such opening manifests to be the source of the fiercely disputed botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these portals as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and sets out to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from rigid reason and return to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their significance and their value is mysteriously essential – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean tussle between purity and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
