Things are collapsing in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a universe that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and gathering in the offices of theocrats, the coffers of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and solid are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Just what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a world whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in creature form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but beneath those skies, vehicles are caught and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a young woman: still recognisably the prickly and persistent heroine of the earlier books, but aged, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is intensified by her split from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
Pan's decision to go off in quest of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an quality which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of its predecessor, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and danger on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and sinister powers at work. The church authority – the religious governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of rigid, procedural evil – is under recent guidance, and asserting its power. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of leader of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his fresh influence to extend the institution's control. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is dispatched to the city to find out more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and valuable botanical extract which seems in some way to be the origin of a societal and financial crisis spreading out from that area. The substance is viewed by some as a commercial good, by others as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its source, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the original trilogy, the heroine's decisions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm
In the previous volume, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her destiny are unveiled to be inextricably entwined with the future of the world. Her individual quest to reunite with her soul and rediscover her vision becomes the central battleground in a wider conflict with an oppressive system which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to suppress independence of reason, originality and art: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a series of curious openings in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: windows that appear to give on to alternate realities. An example of a window appears to be the source of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, designates these portals as a problem to the institution's orthodoxy and sets out to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict reason and return to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these locations must be preserved – that what they stand for and their value is somehow vital – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical conflict between innocence and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
