Things are falling apart in the concluding book of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a universe that appears, in this volume especially, as a energized and tilted version of our own. Institutions are crumbling, or reassembling themselves along new and disturbing lines. An hidden force "is ruining the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "wealth is decaying, and no one knows why". Authority is flowing away from states, and pooling in the offices of religious leaders, the treasuries of corporations, the grasp of mobs. "An element is at work, stealthily, very subtly", says merchant a trader character, keeping a watchful eye on the Silk Roads from his place in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were secure and strong are faltering and collapsing."
The Central Mystery and Lyra's Journey
Exactly what that force might be, and how to counteract it, is the mystery that drives The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book ended. This is, reportedly, Pullman's concluding excursion into the carefully crafted, infinitely beguiling universe he first unveiled in the distant past, with the release of His Dark Materials. It's a domain whose terrain aligns with that of the real world, but whose past veers and changes with ours; where the people look and reason and behave like us, but are paired by external spirits, beings in creature form; where the heavens are filled with sorceresses and gryphons, but below, vehicles are ridden and drinks is sipped, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. The protagonist, whom we first met as a 12-year-old in the original trilogy, and then revisited as a toddler in the first volume, the introductory book with which the author began this trilogy, is now a young woman: still distinctly the prickly and tenacious main character of the previous installments, but aged, melancholic, more cautious, less certain. This restraint is amplified by her division from her daemon, her daemon – but it was also, ironically, the catalyst which led him to leave her in the first place.
Interwoven Plots
The daemon's resolve to leave in quest of that innocent part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an quality which he represents as her "vision"), and her journey to rejoin with him, were the incitements of The Secret Commonwealth, which chronicled the protagonist undertake a picaresque trek across the continent and into the Caucasus, encountering with marvel and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in motion, and malevolent elements at work. The Magisterium – the faith's ruling body, and the author's brilliantly sinister representation of austere, administrative wickedness – is under recent guidance, and showing its strength. The antagonist – Lyra's family member, who holds responsible her for his sister's death – has manoeuvred himself into the office of president of the Magisterium's governing body, and is intent on using his recently acquired power to broaden the institution's rule. Malcolm Polstead, who saved infant the heroine to safety along a overflowing river as an child in the first book, is now an Oxford don with a sideline in spycraft: he is sent to the city to discover more about his aims. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious essential oil which appears in some way to be the source of a societal and economic upheaval rippling out from that area. The extract is regarded by some as a tradeable product, by different parties as a empirical or spiritual miracle, and by further factions – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of evil; an affront that must be destroyed. The issue of its source, its meaning, and if it should be removed or preserved is becoming urgent.
Similar to His Dark Materials, our protagonist's deeds, and her future, are demonstrated to be deeply entwined with the fate of the realm
In its predecessor, these narratives ran broadly in tandem. In The Rose Field, they merge. Like His Dark Materials, the protagonist's choices and her fate are unveiled to be deeply entwined with the fate of the world. Her private quest to rejoin with her soul and regain her creativity becomes the central battleground in a broader battle with an controlling government which, as such authorities often attempt, is striving to quell independence of reason, innovation and art: all the internal, resistant ways in which humans can be liberated.
Cosmic Openings and Philosophical Struggles
The book begins with the unveiling of a series of unusual cracks in the fabric of the Earth's sky: gateways that look to give on to other worlds. A particular window seems to be the origin of the highly contested botanical substance. The Magisterium, with the antagonist at its helm, labels these openings as a threat to the institution's beliefs and endeavors to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to shift from rigid rationalism and back to feeling, yet, her belief that these places must be defended – that their significance and what they provide is in some way vital – strengthens. "Dust, or the substance, or the vision, or the field of roses, or no matter what we name it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical struggle between naivety and maturity is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Character Development
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
