Things are unraveling in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were stable and strong are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's final excursion into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting realm he first revealed in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are joined by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with witches and legendary creatures, but underneath, transports are taken and tea is consumed, and mature scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and determined protagonist of the previous installments, but older, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Merging Narratives
The daemon's resolve to leave in pursuit of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to reconnect with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a wandering journey across the continent and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and darker forces at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and Pullman's masterfully eerie embodiment of rigid, bureaucratic evil – is under fresh command, and asserting its power. Lyra's uncle – Lyra's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his newfound authority to extend the church's rule. A key character, who carried baby the heroine to security along a flooded river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in intelligence work: he is assigned to a key location to learn more about his intentions. And behind all of this is the puzzle surrounding the scarce and costly rose oil which appears in some way to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance spreading out from the region. The extract is seen by various factions as a commercial good, by different parties as a empirical or esoteric wonder, and by further factions – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a origin of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The question of its origins, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her fate, are demonstrated to be inseparably linked with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these narratives ran broadly in side by side. In this final book, they converge. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's choices and her destiny are shown to be inextricably woven with the fate of the world. Her individual mission to reunite with her daemon and rediscover her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a broader war with an authoritarian regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to quell autonomy of reason, innovation and culture: all the personal, defiant ways in which humans can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story begins with the finding of a series of strange openings in the fabric of the planet's sky: gateways that look to lead to alternate realities. An example of a window seems to be the source of the much debated rose oil. The church, with Delamare at its leadership, designates these portals as a problem to the church's doctrine and sets out to destroy them. As the heroine begins to shift from strict logic and return to instinct, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and their value is in some way vital – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The setting for a poetic conflict between purity and experience is established.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
