Things are collapsing in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a universe that manifests, in this volume especially, as a charged and skewed version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or restructuring themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of business empires, the hands of rioters. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Elements we thought were firm and durable are deteriorating and giving way."
The Central Mystery and Her Quest
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which resumes where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's concluding excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a domain whose geography corresponds to that of the real world, but whose chronicles diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by animal souls, beings in beast form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, transports are caught and drinks is drunk, and mature academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a toddler in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still recognisably the prickly and tenacious heroine of the prior volumes, but more mature, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This limitation is intensified by her split from her daemon, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an aspect which he represents as her "imagination"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the religious governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie embodiment of rigid, procedural malice – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his sibling's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to expand the religion's control. Malcolm Polstead, who saved young Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an child in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to a key location to learn more about Delamare's aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which manifests mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial upheaval emanating out from Central Asia. The substance is regarded by various factions as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a scientific or spiritual miracle, and by others still – the extremist "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be destroyed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's actions, and her fate, are revealed to be inextricably linked with the future of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran largely in side by side. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the original series, her choices and her destiny are shown to be deeply entwined with the future of the world. Her individual mission to reconnect with her companion and regain her creativity becomes the key battleground in a wider battle with an oppressive system which, as these systems typically do, is seeking to suppress freedom of thinking, creativity and art: all the inner, resistant ways in which people can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The book begins with the discovery of a collection of strange fissures in the makeup of the world's sky: portals that appear to lead to other worlds. An example of a portal manifests to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The church, with its leader at its head, designates these windows as a problem to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from rigid logic and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her certainty that these places must be protected – that their meaning and what they offer is mysteriously essential – grows. "Dust, or rose oil, or the creativity, or the botanical realm, or whatever we call it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a philosophical tussle between purity and maturity is established.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
