Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the second of Philip Pullman's grand trilogies set in a realm that seems, in this volume especially, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Institutions are failing, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from authorities, and accumulating in the offices of religious leaders, the vaults of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, very quietly, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and durable are faltering and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that drives The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth ended. This is, reportedly, the author's last venture into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the release of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and think and act like us, but are paired by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are ridden and tea is sipped, and mature scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Lyra, whom we first encountered as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in the prequel, the introductory book with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a mature individual: still clearly the prickly and determined main character of the prior volumes, but more mature, more sorrowful, more careful, less certain. This circumscription is heightened by her division from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the trigger which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to leave in search of that childlike part of her which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, profound shifts were in play, and malevolent elements at work. The religious council – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's masterfully eerie representation of rigid, bureaucratic wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who blames her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of head of the Magisterium's High Council, and is determined on using his fresh influence to expand the church's dominium. Another protagonist, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a flooded river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a secondary role in espionage: he is dispatched to the city to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the scarce and precious essential oil which appears mysteriously to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from that area. The substance is regarded by some as a marketable commodity, by others as a empirical or esoteric miracle, and by others still – the fanatical "mountain dwellers" – as a wellspring of darkness; an insult that must be destroyed. The dilemma of its origins, what it stands for, and if it should be destroyed or protected is escalating in importance.
Similar to the first series, Lyra's actions, and her destiny, are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the destiny of the realm
In its predecessor, these plots ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's actions and her path are revealed to be deeply linked with the fate of the universe. Her private journey to rejoin with her companion and recover her imagination becomes the key battleground in a larger conflict with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to quell autonomy of thinking, innovation and expression: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The book opens with the unveiling of a series of unusual cracks in the structure of the planet's sky: portals that appear to give on to different dimensions. One such window manifests to be the point of the highly contested mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its helm, classifies these openings as a threat to the institution's orthodoxy and endeavors to eradicate them. As our protagonist begins to turn away from inflexible reason and back to instinct, nevertheless, her belief that these locations must be defended – that what they stand for and what they offer is in some way crucial – strengthens. "Cosmic particles, 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 conflict between innocence and maturity is established.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
