Things are unraveling in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a world that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An unseen force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is shifting from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of corporations, the control of crowds. "Some force is at work, very quietly, gradually", says merchant a merchant figure, keeping a observant eye on the Silk Roads from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which continues where its predecessor left off. This is, reportedly, the author's final foray into the elaborately built, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose geography aligns with that of our world, but whose past tacks and jibes with ours; where the individuals look and reason and behave like us, but are joined by animal souls, essences in creature form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and gryphons, but beneath those skies, vehicles are taken and drinks is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and tenacious main character of the earlier books, but older, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of her which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he symbolizes as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and risk on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and the author's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and flexing its muscles. The antagonist – the heroine's uncle, who holds responsible her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the position of head of the church's High Council, and is set on using his newfound influence to broaden the religion's dominium. A key character, who saved infant the heroine to refuge along a flooded Thames as an child in the first book, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is assigned to Geneva to find out more about his intentions. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and valuable rose oil which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic upheaval rippling out from Central Asia. The extract is viewed by certain groups as a commercial commodity, by others as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a source of malevolence; an affront that must be obliterated. The issue of its origins, its significance, and whether it should be removed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
Similar to the original trilogy, the heroine's deeds, and her future, are shown to be deeply connected with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran largely in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Similar to the original series, Lyra's movements and her destiny are revealed to be inseparably entwined with the future of the realm. Her individual quest to reunite with her companion and rediscover her vision becomes the key battleground in a wider conflict with an authoritarian system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to quell independence of reason, innovation and expression: all the inner, resistant ways in which individuals can be independent.
Cosmic Openings and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the finding of a series of curious cracks in the makeup of the planet's sky: gateways that appear to give on to alternate realities. A particular window appears to be the source of the much debated mystical extract. The authority, with the antagonist at its head, classifies these portals as a challenge to the institution's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible reason and revert to feeling, however, her belief that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is in some way crucial – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we label it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a poetic conflict between purity and knowledge is set.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
