Things are falling apart in the last installment of The Book of Dust, the next of the author's masterful trilogies set in a realm that seems, here more than ever, as a energized and skewed version of our own. Establishments are crumbling, or restructuring themselves along unfamiliar and troubling lines. An invisible force "is wrecking the air and the seasons"; simultaneously, "currency is failing, and no one knows why". Control is shifting from states, and pooling in the chambers of theocrats, the vaults of conglomerates, the hands of rioters. "An element is at work, silently, very subtly", says trader Mustafa Bey, keeping a observant eye on the ancient paths from his post in an Aleppo cafe. "Aspects we thought were firm and strong are weakening and failing."
Core Enigma and The Protagonist's Path
Just what that something might be, and methods to fight it, is the mystery that animates The Rose Field, which continues where the previous book left off. This is, according to many, Pullman's last foray into the carefully crafted, endlessly enchanting universe he first unveiled 30 years ago, with the publication of Northern Lights. It's a world whose geography corresponds to that of this world, but whose past diverges and shifts with ours; where the humans appear and think and act like us, but are accompanied by external spirits, essences in beast form; where the heavens are teeming with sorceresses and mythical beasts, but below, vehicles are taken and beverages is drunk, and older scholars carry fancy shopping bags. Our heroine, whom we first met as a young girl in the first trilogy, and then met once more as a infant in the prequel, the prequel with which Pullman began the series, is now a adult: still clearly the sharp and persistent main character of the earlier books, but more mature, sadder, more cautious, less certain. This circumscription is amplified by her split from her daemon, Pantalaimon – but it was also, unexpectedly, the catalyst which caused him to abandon her in the first place.
Converging Storylines
His choice to go off in quest of that youthful part of Lyra which she may have forgotten (an trait which he represents as her "creativity"), and her journey to reunite with him, were the catalysts of its predecessor, which followed Lyra undertake a picaresque journey across Europe and into the mountain region, meeting with amazement and risk on the way. But from the start, underlying forces were in play, and sinister powers at work. The religious council – the church's controlling power, and Pullman's deliciously chilling representation of strict, administrative evil – is under new leadership, and showing its strength. The antagonist – the heroine's relative, who holds responsible her for his sibling's death – has positioned himself into the role of head of the authority's High Council, and is determined on using his newfound influence to expand the religion's dominium. Another protagonist, who carried baby Lyra to refuge along a swollen Thames as an child in the prequel, is now an Oxford don with a additional duty in intelligence work: he is sent to Geneva to discover more about his plans. And underlying all of this is the puzzle surrounding the rare and precious botanical extract which seems in some way to be the cause of a societal and economic disturbance emanating out from that area. The oil is seen by certain groups as a marketable commodity, by others as a scientific or mystical phenomenon, and by others still – the fanatical "men from the mountains" – as a wellspring of evil; an insult that must be eradicated. The issue of where it comes from, its significance, and if it should be destroyed or safeguarded is becoming urgent.
As in His Dark Materials, Lyra's decisions, and her future, are demonstrated to be inextricably linked with the fate of the universe
In the previous volume, these narratives ran largely in tandem. In The Rose Field, they come together. Like His Dark Materials, Lyra's actions and her fate are revealed to be inextricably entwined with the fate of the universe. Her private journey to rejoin with her companion and rediscover her creativity becomes the central conflict in a wider war with an controlling government which, as these systems always have, is seeking to quell freedom of reason, creativity and culture: all the internal, rebellious ways in which people can be free.
Atmospheric Fissures and Moral Battles
The story starts with the unveiling of a series of unusual openings in the structure of the world's sky: windows that appear to open into different dimensions. One such opening seems to be the origin of the highly contested mystical extract. The authority, with Delamare at its head, designates these windows as a challenge to the church's orthodoxy and aims to eliminate them. As Lyra begins to move from rigid rationalism and revert to instinct, however, her belief that these sites must be preserved – that their significance and what they provide is somehow essential – grows. "Dust, or the substance, or the creativity, or the field of roses, or whatever we label it," she says, "we require it." The setting for a philosophical conflict between innocence and knowledge is prepared.
Plot Rhythm and Protagonist Growth
At a substantial length, The Rose Field|this volume|the
