Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a universe that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disturbing lines. An invisible force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the control of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and solid are faltering and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Exactly what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, the author's last excursion into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in animal form; where the air are filled with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, buses are caught and drinks is consumed, and older academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in La Belle Sauvage, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and determined main character of the previous installments, but more mature, melancholic, warier, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which made him desert her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to go off in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she may have forgotten (an trait which he epitomises as her "imagination"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw Lyra undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the mountain region, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's brilliantly sinister embodiment of strict, procedural evil – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who blames her for his sister's death – has worked himself into the office of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound power to broaden the institution's dominium. Malcolm Polstead, who carried infant Lyra to security along a flooded Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is sent to the city to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a societal and financial upheaval spreading out from that area. The oil is regarded by various factions as a tradeable good, by alternate groups as a scientific or esoteric phenomenon, and by further factions – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be obliterated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be removed or protected is becoming urgent.
As in the first series, the heroine's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably connected with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In the conclusion, they converge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her fate are revealed to be deeply woven with the destiny of the universe. Her personal quest to reconnect with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary struggle in a broader conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes always have, is attempting to suppress freedom of thinking, originality and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which individuals can be free.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The story begins with the discovery of a series of curious cracks in the structure of the world's atmosphere: gateways that seem to give on to alternate realities. One such opening manifests to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The Magisterium, with its leader at its leadership, labels these windows as a challenge to the church's beliefs and aims to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from strict logic and back to intuition, yet, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is in some way vital – strengthens. "The substance, or the extract, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical conflict between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
