Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's grand trilogies set in a world that manifests, now more than ever, as a charged and slanted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along novel and disquieting lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Control is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the coffers of conglomerates, the control of mobs. "Something is at work, very quietly, very subtly", says trader a trader character, keeping a vigilant eye on the trade routes from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are weakening and collapsing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and methods to fight it, is the inquiry that drives The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's final excursion into the intricately constructed, deeply captivating realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose landscape corresponds to that of our world, but whose history tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and reason and act like us, but are accompanied by animal souls, essences in animal form; where the air are teeming with enchantresses and legendary creatures, but below, buses are caught and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry luxury shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first introduced to as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a baby in the prequel, the origin story with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the prickly and determined main character of the prior volumes, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, less sure. This restraint is intensified by her split from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which made him desert her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to go off in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her mission to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled Lyra undertake a adventurous trek across Europe and into the mountain region, encountering with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in action, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of strict, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has worked himself into the role of president of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is intent on using his newfound authority to extend the institution's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried young Lyra to safety along a overflowing river as an young boy in the prequel, is now an academic with a sideline in espionage: he is sent to a key location to discover more about the antagonist's intentions. And beneath all of this is the mystery surrounding the rare and valuable essential oil which manifests somehow to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval spreading out from that area. The substance is regarded by some as a commercial good, by alternate groups as a scientific or mystical miracle, and by others still – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of malevolence; an challenge that must be eradicated. The dilemma of its source, its meaning, and whether it should be destroyed or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in His Dark Materials, the heroine's actions, and her future, are revealed to be inseparably connected with the fate of the universe
In its predecessor, these storylines ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her path are shown to be inseparably linked with the fate of the world. Her private quest to reconnect with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the central battleground in a broader conflict with an oppressive government which, as these systems often attempt, is striving to stifle autonomy of thought, innovation and expression: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be independent.
Dimensional Rifts and Ideological Conflicts
The book starts with the unveiling of a collection of unusual fissures in the structure of the world's atmosphere: gateways that appear to lead to different dimensions. An example of a window appears to be the point of the much debated botanical substance. The Magisterium, with its leader at its head, labels these windows as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to destroy them. As the heroine begins to move from inflexible logic and revert to intuition, yet, her belief that these sites must be defended – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously essential – increases. "Cosmic particles, or the substance, or the vision, or the botanical realm, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a Blakean conflict between innocence and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
