Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and slanted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reorganizing themselves along new and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and gathering in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of rioters. "Something is at work, silently, very subtly", says businessman Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that something might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where the previous book concluded. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in creature form; where the skies are populated with witches and gryphons, but below, transports are taken and beverages is drunk, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then saw again as a infant in the first volume, the origin story with which Pullman began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the sharp and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, more doubtful. This restraint is amplified by her division from her animal guide, Pantalaimon – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
His choice to go off in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she seems to have lost (an trait which he symbolizes as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and danger on the way. But from the beginning, profound shifts were in action, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the religious controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of rigid, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's relative, who faults her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of leader of the authority's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired authority to broaden the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who carried young the heroine to refuge along a flooded Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a secondary role in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a societal and financial crisis emanating out from the region. The substance is seen by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the zealous "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be eradicated. The issue of its source, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are shown to be inextricably connected with the destiny of the world
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her fate are revealed to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world. Her private mission to reunite with her companion and regain her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a wider conflict with an controlling government which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to stifle freedom of thinking, creativity and expression: all the personal, rebellious ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The book begins with the finding of a collection of curious fissures in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: gateways that appear to open into different dimensions. One such window seems to be the origin of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, classifies these windows as a challenge to the church's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from inflexible logic and return to instinct, nevertheless, her conviction that these places must be protected – that their significance and what they provide is mysteriously vital – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the extract, or the imagination, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a philosophical struggle between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
