Things are collapsing in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the second of the author's grand trilogies set in a realm that manifests, now more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Organizations are failing, or reassembling themselves along novel and troubling lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Authority is draining from states, and accumulating in the halls of theocrats, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Some force is at work, stealthily, imperceptibly", says businessman a merchant figure, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his seat in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are deteriorating and failing."
Core Enigma and Her Quest
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the question that animates The Rose Field, which resumes where its predecessor ended. This is, reportedly, the author's last excursion into the elaborately built, endlessly enchanting universe he first revealed three decades past, with the launch of Northern Lights. It's a world whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose history diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and reason and behave like us, but are joined by external spirits, souls in beast form; where the heavens are populated with witches and gryphons, but below, vehicles are ridden and drinks is consumed, and middle-aged professors carry luxury 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 La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which Pullman began this trilogy, is now a mature individual: still distinctly the sharp and tenacious protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, warier, less certain. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her soul companion, her daemon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
His choice to depart in quest of that youthful part of her which she seems to have lost (an aspect which he represents as her "creativity"), and her quest to reconnect with him, were the driving forces of The Secret Commonwealth, which followed the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with wonder and peril on the way. But from the beginning, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's governing authority, and the author's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, procedural evil – is under fresh command, and showing its strength. Lyra's uncle – our protagonist's relative, who faults her for his family member's death – has manoeuvred himself into the role of head of the church's governing body, and is set on using his fresh power to expand the religion's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved baby Lyra to safety along a swollen Thames as an young boy in the prequel, is now an university scholar with a sideline in spycraft: he is assigned to a key location to find out more about his plans. And beneath all of this is the enigma surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which appears mysteriously to be the cause of a social and economic crisis rippling out from the region. The substance is regarded by certain groups as a commercial product, by different parties as a scientific or esoteric wonder, and by others still – the extremist "highland figures" – as a wellspring of darkness; an challenge that must be destroyed. The dilemma of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be removed or protected is coming rapidly to the fore.
As in the first series, our protagonist's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inseparably connected with the future of the universe
In the previous volume, these storylines ran mostly in parallel. In this final book, they come together. As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her fate are shown to be inseparably entwined with the destiny of the universe. Her private mission to reunite with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the key conflict in a broader conflict with an oppressive system which, as these systems typically do, is striving to stifle autonomy of thinking, innovation and culture: all the inner, defiant ways in which individuals can be liberated.
Atmospheric Fissures and Ideological Conflicts
The novel starts with the finding of a set of unusual fissures in the fabric of the planet's sky: windows that seem to lead to other worlds. One such opening appears to be the origin of the much debated mystical extract. The church, with Delamare at its helm, designates these openings as a problem to the religion's doctrine and endeavors to eliminate them. As the heroine begins to shift from rigid rationalism and back to instinct, yet, her certainty that these locations must be defended – that their significance and what they offer is in some way crucial – grows. "The substance, or the substance, or the imagination, or the Rose Field, or no matter what we label it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a Blakean conflict between naivety and experience is prepared.
Narrative Pacing and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
