Things are falling apart in the final volume of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that seems, here more than ever, as a intense and slanted version of our own. Establishments are weakening, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and disquieting lines. An hidden force "is destroying the air and the seasons"; concurrently, "money's going bad, and no one knows why". Power is shifting from governments, and gathering in the chambers of religious leaders, the treasuries of conglomerates, the hands of mobs. "Something is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a vigilant eye on the ancient paths from his place in an city cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and solid are deteriorating and giving way."
Key Puzzle and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that force might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that propels The Rose Field, which picks up where The Secret Commonwealth left off. This is, reportedly, the author's final foray into the intricately constructed, endlessly enchanting world he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the launch of the first trilogy. It's a realm whose landscape maps on to that of the real world, but whose history veers and changes with ours; where the individuals appear and reason and behave like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in animal form; where the heavens are populated with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but underneath, vehicles are ridden and drinks is drunk, and older professors carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a child in the original trilogy, and then met once more as a baby in La Belle Sauvage, the prequel with which the author began The Book of Dust, is now a young woman: still distinctly the spiky and persistent protagonist of the prior volumes, but aged, more sorrowful, more cautious, more doubtful. This limitation is heightened by her division from her soul companion, Pantalaimon – but it was also, paradoxically, the cause which caused him to abandon 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 "creativity"), and her quest to reunite with him, were the catalysts of The Secret Commonwealth, which saw the protagonist undertake a wandering trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the outset, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the church's ruling body, and Pullman's deliciously chilling incarnation of austere, bureaucratic wickedness – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. Marcel Delamare – Lyra's family member, who blames her for his family member's death – has positioned himself into the office of head of the authority's governing body, and is set on using his recently acquired power to extend the church's control. Malcolm Polstead, who rescued young Lyra to refuge along a swollen river as an child in La Belle Sauvage, is now an university scholar with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is dispatched to the city to learn more about Delamare's intentions. And behind all of this is the mystery surrounding the uncommon and precious rose oil which seems somehow to be the origin of a social and economic crisis spreading out from the region. The substance is seen by various factions as a commercial commodity, by different parties as a research-based or esoteric wonder, and by yet others – the fanatical "highland figures" – as a source of evil; an challenge that must be obliterated. The question of its origins, its meaning, and whether it should be eliminated or protected is escalating in importance.
Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her destiny, are shown to be inseparably connected with the fate of the world
In the previous volume, these plots ran broadly in parallel. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like the first trilogy, Lyra's actions and her destiny are unveiled to be inseparably woven with the destiny of the realm. Her private mission to reconnect with her soul and recover her vision becomes the central battleground in a larger battle with an oppressive government which, as these systems always have, is seeking to quell independence of thinking, originality and culture: all the internal, defiant ways in which people can be free.
Dimensional Rifts and Philosophical Struggles
The novel begins with the discovery of a set of curious fissures in the structure of the world's air: portals that appear to open into alternate realities. One such window seems to be the origin of the fiercely disputed rose oil. The authority, with its leader at its helm, classifies these windows as a threat to the church's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As our protagonist begins to move from rigid rationalism and revert to intuition, nevertheless, her conviction that these sites must be protected – that their meaning and what they provide is mysteriously vital – grows. "Cosmic particles, or rose oil, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we call it," she says, "it is necessary." The setting for a philosophical conflict between innocence and experience is prepared.
Story Tempo and Protagonist Growth
At 640 pages, The Rose Field|this volume|the
