Tings are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of Philip Pullman's masterful trilogies set in a world that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Organizations are weakening, or reassembling themselves along new and troubling lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; at the same time, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is flowing away from states, and accumulating in the offices of theocrats, the vaults of corporations, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, silently, imperceptibly", says merchant 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 deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and Her Quest
Precisely what that something might be, and ways to oppose it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor concluded. This is, reportedly, the author's last foray into the intricately constructed, infinitely beguiling realm he first introduced 30 years ago, with the release of the first trilogy. It's a world whose geography aligns with that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the individuals look and think and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, souls in animal form; where the air are filled with witches and mythical beasts, but underneath, buses are taken and beverages is drunk, and middle-aged academics carry Harrods shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a young girl in the His Dark Materials trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began the series, is now a adult: still distinctly the spiky and persistent protagonist of the earlier books, but aged, melancholic, more careful, more doubtful. This limitation is amplified by her split from her animal guide, her daemon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the cause which led him to leave her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that youthful part of the heroine which she appears to have shed (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of the prior book, which saw Lyra undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the mountain region, meeting with marvel and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in play, and darker forces at work. The religious council – the faith's governing authority, and Pullman's deliciously chilling embodiment of rigid, bureaucratic malice – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – the heroine's relative, who blames her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the office of leader of the Magisterium's ruling assembly, and is determined on using his fresh authority to expand the church's control. A key character, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a overflowing river as an 11-year-old in the prequel, is now an academic with a additional duty in spycraft: he is sent to the city to find out more about Delamare's aims. And underlying all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious botanical extract which seems mysteriously to be the origin of a social and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The extract is regarded by certain groups as a tradeable product, by others as a empirical or esoteric phenomenon, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a origin of malevolence; an affront that must be eradicated. The question of its origins, its significance, and if it should be eliminated or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to the first series, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are revealed to be deeply entwined with the future of the realm
In its predecessor, these storylines ran mostly in side by side. In the conclusion, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, her choices and her fate are unveiled to be deeply linked with the destiny of the world. Her personal journey to reconnect with her daemon and recover her creativity becomes the central struggle in a larger battle with an authoritarian regime which, as such authorities typically do, is seeking to suppress independence of thinking, creativity and art: all the internal, defiant ways in which humans can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the finding of a collection of strange cracks in the structure of the planet's sky: portals that look to open into alternate realities. One such window seems to be the source of the highly contested rose oil. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its head, designates these openings as a challenge to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eradicate them. As the heroine begins to shift from inflexible reason and return to instinct, yet, her conviction that these sites must be defended – that what they stand for and their value is mysteriously essential – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or whatever we name it," she says, "we need it." The stage for a Blakean conflict between innocence and experience is set.
Story Tempo and Character Development
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
