Things are unraveling in the concluding book of The Dust Trilogy, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that appears, here more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from governments, and pooling in the chambers of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says trader a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Elements we thought were stable and solid are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Precisely what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling world he first unveiled in the distant past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape aligns with that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are accompanied by daemons, souls in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, buses are ridden and drinks is consumed, and mature academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still recognisably the spiky and persistent main character of the prior volumes, but older, sadder, more cautious, more doubtful. This restraint is heightened by her separation from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in quest of that innocent part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an trait which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque voyage across the continent and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's brilliantly sinister incarnation of austere, procedural wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his sibling's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of leader of the church's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young the heroine to refuge along a swollen river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in spycraft: he is sent to the city to learn more about Delamare's plans. And beneath all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and costly botanical extract which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and economic crisis emanating out from that area. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by others as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the zealous "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an insult that must be destroyed. The question of where it comes from, its meaning, and if it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.
Like the first series, the heroine's deeds, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the fate of the realm
In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to the first trilogy, her actions and her fate are unveiled to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the world. Her personal quest to reconnect with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the key battleground in a broader conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as these systems always have, is striving to suppress autonomy of reason, originality and culture: all the internal, resistant ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story opens with the finding of a set of curious openings in the makeup of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that appear to open into other worlds. One such window appears to be the source of the much debated botanical substance. The authority, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these windows as a problem to the religion's orthodoxy and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible reason and back to feeling, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is in some way vital – increases. "Dust, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic tussle between naivety and maturity is set.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At over six hundred pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
