Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's magisterial trilogies set in a realm that appears, now more than ever, as a charged and tilted version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along new and troubling lines. An invisible force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the hands of crowds. "An element is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the trade routes from his post in an city cafe. "Things we thought were firm and durable are weakening and giving way."
The Central Mystery and The Protagonist's Path
Precisely what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the question that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where its predecessor ended. This is, reportedly, the author's concluding venture into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first unveiled in the distant past, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of our world, but whose chronicles veers and changes with ours; where the people appear and think and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, beings in animal form; where the skies are populated with enchantresses and gryphons, but below, transports are taken and tea is drunk, and middle-aged scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then saw again as a baby in the prequel, the prequel with which the author began this trilogy, is now a adult: still clearly the prickly and tenacious protagonist of the previous installments, but older, more sorrowful, more careful, less sure. This restraint is heightened by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to leave in search of that youthful part of the heroine which she seems to have lost (an quality which he epitomises as her "creativity"), and her mission to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which saw the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across Europe and into the Caucasus, encountering with wonder and risk on the way. But from the start, profound shifts were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's governing authority, and the author's masterfully eerie incarnation of rigid, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and flexing its muscles. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's uncle, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the position of head of the Magisterium's governing body, and is determined on using his recently acquired influence to broaden the church's dominium. A key character, who saved young the heroine to refuge along a overflowing Thames as an young boy in the first book, is now an academic with a additional duty in espionage: he is assigned to the city to learn more about the antagonist's intentions. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and valuable rose oil which manifests somehow to be the origin of a social and financial crisis spreading out from the region. The substance is regarded by various factions as a commercial commodity, by alternate groups as a research-based or mystical wonder, and by further factions – the extremist "highland figures" – as a origin of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and whether it should be eliminated or safeguarded is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions, and her destiny, are demonstrated to be deeply connected with the fate of the universe
In The Secret Commonwealth, these storylines ran broadly in tandem. In this final book, they merge. Similar to His Dark Materials, the protagonist's movements and her path are shown to be inseparably woven with the fate of the realm. Her individual mission to reunite with her soul and regain her imagination becomes the primary conflict in a wider battle with an oppressive regime which, as such regimes often attempt, is seeking to stifle freedom of thinking, innovation and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be liberated.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The book opens with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the fabric of the Earth's atmosphere: windows that seem to open into alternate realities. A particular portal seems to be the point of the highly contested rose oil. The authority, with the antagonist at its leadership, designates these openings as a threat to the religion's doctrine and aims to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to turn away from strict rationalism and return to intuition, nevertheless, her belief that these places must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is somehow vital – grows. "The substance, or rose oil, or the vision, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we need it." The scene for a Blakean conflict between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Personal Evolution
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
