Tings are collapsing in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a world that seems, in this volume especially, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reorganizing themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An unseen force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from authorities, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the coffers of business empires, the control of rioters. "Some force is at work, stealthily, gradually", says trader a merchant figure, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were stable and durable are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that element might be, and ways to oppose it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor concluded. This is, by all accounts, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed 30 years ago, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a realm whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose chronicles tacks and jibes with ours; where the humans appear and think and behave like us, but are paired by daemons, souls in beast form; where the air are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but underneath, buses are caught and drinks is sipped, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first introduced to as a child in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the first volume, the prequel with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This limitation is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pan – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that childlike part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an aspect which he represents as her "vision"), and her quest to rejoin with him, were the driving forces of the prior book, which saw the protagonist undertake a adventurous voyage across Europe and into the Caucasus, facing with amazement and peril on the way. But from the outset, deeper currents were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The church authority – the faith's controlling power, and the author's deliciously chilling representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under new leadership, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – the heroine's family member, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is set on using his newfound influence to broaden the church's control. A key character, who carried young the heroine to security along a overflowing river as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in espionage: he is assigned to the city to learn more about his aims. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and valuable botanical extract which appears mysteriously to be the origin of a societal and financial disturbance spreading out from that area. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a marketable product, by others as a scientific or spiritual phenomenon, and by yet others – the extremist "men from the mountains" – as a origin of darkness; an affront that must be obliterated. The dilemma of its source, what it stands for, and whether it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
Like the first series, Lyra's deeds, and her destiny, are shown to be deeply linked with the future of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran mostly in side by side. In this final book, they come together. Like the original series, the protagonist's choices and her destiny are shown to be inseparably linked with the destiny of the world. Her personal mission to reunite with her daemon and regain her creativity becomes the primary conflict in a wider war with an controlling system which, as such regimes typically do, is striving to suppress autonomy of thinking, creativity and art: all the personal, rebellious ways in which people can be independent.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The story starts with the discovery of a collection of curious cracks in the structure of the planet's atmosphere: windows that look to open into different dimensions. A particular opening seems to be the origin of the much debated rose oil. The church, with the antagonist at its helm, classifies these portals as a challenge to the institution's beliefs and aims to destroy them. As Lyra begins to move from inflexible rationalism and revert to intuition, however, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is somehow essential – strengthens. "Dust, or the extract, or the creativity, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The stage for a poetic struggle between innocence and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
